Nepal hands over bodies of 13 plane crash victims

The Nepal government Tuesday afternoon handed over the bodies of 13 people who were killed in Sunday's plane crash to the respective family members, officials said.

Officials from Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) said the bodies of five other victims, however, could not be handed over because the family members of the deceased could not manage to come to Kathmandu to receive the remains.

An NAC-owned Twin Otter plane, carrying 15 passengers and a three-member crew, crashed Sunday in western Nepal's hilly region. Its wreckage was found littered on a hill Monday, some 20 hours after it was first reported missing.

"We have handed over bodies of 13 victims, including those of three crew members, to their family members," Ram Hari Sharma, NAC spokesperson, told Xinhua.

"Some of the bodies have been taken directly to Pashupathi crematorium for final rites."

He said that as the family members of four passengers were from Jumla, 353 km west of Nepal's capital, and could not come to Kathmandu immediately to receive the bodies, "we will hand over the bodies to them tomorrow (Wednesday) once they come to claim the bodies".

In the case of the body of a Danish citizen, I.M. Matheisen, officials said his wife asked them to keep the body at the hospital for some days until she came to Nepal from Denmark.

After tedious efforts and much delay, government officials and security personnel had finally airlifted the bodies of all the victims to Kathmandu Monday afternoon from the crash site and taken them to hospital for autopsy.

The government has also formed a four-member probe committee to investigate the cause behind Sunday's Twin Otter crash.

NAC officials said the government would distribute compensation to the families of the deceased once the probe report was out.