A much anticipated trip to Nepal for a glimpse of the majestic Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world, up close from air led 10 Indian tourists along with nine others into the jaws of death as the small plane carrying 19 people crashed close to capital city Kathmandu Sunday morning.
Eight adventure-seeking men from southern India, belonging to two families, as well as an Indian couple died in the crash that broke up the plane into pieces and showered bodies over Kotdanda -- a forested area in Kotdanda of Lalitpur district.
Though rescuers managed to bring out a lone survivor alive from the wreck site, the grievously injured 36-year-old Nepali man, identified as Nirajan Karmacharya, died while receiving medical treatment at Lalitpur's B&B Hospital.
The aircraft belonging to Nepal's airline Buddha Air had flown the group to the Mt Everest region in northern Nepal and crashed while returning to the capital around 7.30 a.m., minutes after it went out of contact.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said all the dead had been preliminarily identified though details were still awaited. It was carrying 16 passengers -- 10 Indians, three Nepalis and three foreigners.
Eight of the Indians were said to be from Tamil Nadu. They are -- S.D. Nagraja, S. Nagraja, I. Nagraja, L. Nagraja, D. Talosubrisum, D.P. Talosubrisum, Nagraja Talosubrisum and P. Talosubrisum.
The Indian couple has been identified as Pankaj and Chhaya Mehta.
The three-member crew comprised of Captain J.V. Tamrakar, co-pilot Padma Adhikari and air-hostess Ashmita Adhikari.
The three foreigners are Andrew Wade, Natalie Neilan and Toshinori. The two remaining Nepali passengers are Jagan Karmacharya and Sharada Karmacharya.
Initial reports said the crash could have occurred due to bad weather and poor visibility.
Locals, army and armed policemen began the painful task of gathering the bodies and readying to bring them back to Kathmandu for post-mortem examination.
The crash comes at a time Nepal is observing tourism year 2011 with the intention of bringing in one million air-borne tourists, mostly Indians.
Monsoon and its after-months are the time crashes occur most.
Last December, Nepal's domestic carrier Tara Air flying 22 people, mostly Bhutanese pilgrims, crashed after smashing into mountains east of Kathmandu and killed all on board.
Another major crash occurred in August the same year when a plane flying to the Everest region crashed due to bad weather, killing all 14 people on board, including four Americans, a Japanese and a Briton.
Buddha Air recently started international flights, first heading to Bhutan and then ferrying passengers to India's Lucknow city.