POKHARA, Nov 13: An ultra-light carrying a tourist that went missing last year after taking off from Pokhara Airport, has been found on Sunday.
According to Pom Narayan Shrestha, the owner of Pokhara Ultra-light Company, the ultra-light was found fragmented into several tiny pieces between Mt. Machhapuchre and Mt. Annapurna, 12,000 feet* from the sea level.
“We had started search for the missing ultra-light the day it went missing. Choppers were deployed for the search operation repeatedly,” said Shrestha.
The ultra-light with the call sign 9N-ALI had gone missing from Oct 25, 2015. The pilot is identified is 50-year-old Russian national Valerie Putin. Elizabeth Well, 40, was a South African passenger in the ultra-light.
The ultra-light had taken off for an hour flight for the sightseeing of the snow-capped peaks. The aircraft had lost contact with the tower seven minutes after the takeoff.
Both the pilot and passenger travelling on the flight were killed on the spot. Police recovered only their bones today. Most of the parts of the ultra-light including the engine and the wings have been found reduced to ashes.
As the black box has not been recovered yet, the cause for the accident is yet to be known.
Ultralight resumes in Pokhara after eight months
Police Head Constable Duo Purnalal Devkota and Tejendra Budha reached the incident through a chopper and collected the wreckage of the ultra-light and human bones.
“The incident site can be reached after travelling half an hour on foot from the helipad,” said Devkota, “We collected the wreckage and the bones.”
*Correction
Photo courtesy: Armed Police Force
