"It is impossible to hand over the bodies of Bhutanese people by Saturday. We cannot complete the postmortems on all dead bodies by this time even if we worked all night long," Dr Harihar Wosti, forensic expert at TUTH, told Republica on Friday. "We will be able to hand over the bodies only by Sunday evening."[break]
A team of 12 forensic experts and doctors has been working tirelessly since Thursday afternoon to carry out the postmortems on all 22 bodies. They handed over the bodies of the three crew members -- pilot Anup Raj Shakya, co-pilot Sachindra Shrestha and air hostess Sadikshya Gurung -- to the family member on Friday morning. "We worked till midnight for this," Dr Wosti said.
Unlike in the previous Agni Air crash, according to Dr Wosti, the bodies were not scattered in pieces this time around. However, not a single body was recovered intact. "All the bodies have incurred multiple damages," Dr Wosti said. "It is not a case of suicide in which we usually complete the postmortem in just one and a half hour. We have to properly identify body parts."
The Tara Air Twin Otter (9N-AFX DHC-6/300) had crashed in Sirichaur-9 of Okhaldhunga Wednesday. The bodies of all 22 persons, including three crew members, were recovered Thursday. Of them, 17 passengers have been confirmed to be Bhutanese nationals. Although 18 Bhutanese passengers were supposed to board the plane, one Kinley Namgyal missed it. Bhutanese officials say somebody else might have boarded the plane in Kinley´s place.
Probe committee formed
Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) on Friday formed a probe committee led by former Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Medini Prasad Sharma to probe the Tara Air crash. The five-member committee has been given 90 days to submit its report.
The committee has been directed to investigate the case of Bhutanese passengers booking tickets under fake Nepali names. The committee has been asked to recommend possible legal actions against all those involved in issuing tickets under fake Nepali names to Bhutanese passengers.
Similarly, a separate committee headed by Ranjan Krishna Aryal, joint secretary at Home Ministry has been constituted to come up with possible measures to prevent cases of booking tickets under fake names.
Tara Air refutes over-load claim
Tara Air has issued a press statement Friday refuting reports that blamed overloading for the crash. The maximum takeoff weight of the aircraft was 12,500 pounds, the statement says, but it had taken off with just 12,280 pounds.
The statement further clarified that the rate of chartered flight was same for Nepali nationals and foreigners.
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