18 bodies recovered from Nepal plane crash site

The government officials and security personnel have begun preparations to airlift all 18 bodies of the passengers who were killed in a plane crash on Sunday in the remote hilly region of Nepal, after rescuers finished collecting the bodies, police personnel deployed at the site said. Multiple sources at Civil Aviation Authority in Nepal (CAAN), Nepal's aviation regulator and Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the state owned aviation service provider, confirmed Xinhua that all passengers on board the aircraft are found dead and that their bodies have been scattered at the site where the wreckage of the plane had been located this morning. "The identity of seven passengers have been ascertained," Bimalesh Karna, chief of Rescue Coordination Center at Nepal's only international airport told Xinhua. According to him, the ill fated passengers who have been identified so far are Nepal Army Major Deepak Shrestha, Nepali Congress Jumla President Manav Sejuwal, Barsha Hamal, Sahish Hamal, Dibesh Shahi, Air hostess Muna Maharjan and Rejendra Chaulagain. "As most of the bodies have been burnt down and scattered, they are not in position to be identified," Karna said, adding the bodies will be brought to Kathmandu's Teaching Hospital for autopsy, the only way to know about the actual reason of death and to ascertain identities of the deceased. Officials believed the dead bodies will be brought to Nepal's capital by Monday evening. Government officials had been able to figure out the NAC twin otter only Monday morning, some 20 hours after it went missing since Sunday afternoon.