Pokhara, Jan. 17: Altogether 70 bodies have been recovered from the Yeti aircraft crash site in Pokhara-15 of Kaski district as of Monday evening while two bodies are still missing. Two bodies were recovered from the Seti gorge on Monday. 

According to Chief of Kaski Police, Superintendent of Police (SP) Raju KC, two bodies are yet to be recovered. 

All 70 bodies are kept at Pokhara Academy of Health Sciences for their identification. Body identification process has moved ahead, said Dr. Bharat Bahadur KC, Director of Pokhara Academy of Health Sciences. 

As of Monday evening, 39 bodies have been identified and postmortem was being performed on 21 bodies.  Other bodies will be sent to Kathmandu for postmortem after their identification. 

Meanwhile, in Kathmandu, Sudarshan Bartaula, Spokesperson for the Yeti Airlines, and a press statement issued by the Airlines at 6:00 pm, said that 69 bodies have been recovered from the crash site so far. 

One unidentified body was recovered on Monday afternoon by the search and rescue team of the Nepali Army, Armed Police Force, according to Bartaula. 

The bodies would be handed over to the respective bereaved family members in Pokhara if they want to receive them in Pokhara after performing their autopsies, according to the statement. 

By the time this news story was filed, body of Sadakat Alimiya was handed over to the relatives. The bodies of foreigners, crew members and unidentified bodies would be taken to Kathmandu for further confirmation at TU Teaching Hospital with the help of Nepali Army helicopter, read the statement. A helicopter has arrived in Pokhara for airlifting the bodies to Kathmandu, it added.

Similarly, the Search and Rescue Coordination Centre team involved in the search of missing bodies of Yeti Air plane crash said that it would perform autopsies of 24 bodies in Pokhara 

and the remaining bodies would be sent to Kathmandu for further test 

and verification. According to Western Regional Hospital, the autopsies of the identified 24 bodies have begun in the hospital.

The remaining bodies, which failed to be recognised properly, will be sent to Kathmandu on Tuesday for autopsies and identification, the hospital said.

Gyan Bahadur Khadka, Spokesperson for District Police Office, said that the bodies, which could not be examined in Pokhara, would be taken to Kathmandu by helicopter of the Nepali Army on Tuesday. “Preparations have been made to take the bodies of foreign nationals, unidentified and crew members to Kathmandu for post-mortem,” said DSP Khadka. A team, including forensic experts from Kathmandu. has arrived at the Western Regional Hospital for post-mortem examination, he said. 

70 bodies recovered, two still missing  

As of Tuesday evening, 70 bodies have been recovered from the plane crash site in the Seti River of Pokhara. 

The condition of two passengers is still unknown, said police. 

It is said that the search for the missing persons is continuing. 

The names of those who will be autopsied in Pokhara are Tribhuvan Paudel, Nishan Acharya, Om Maya Gurung, Yasmin Gurung, Poojan Rana, Arun Paudel and Prasiddi Paudel.

Similarly, autopsies of Jeevan Kala Gurung, Purna Bahadur Gurung, Sangeeta Shahi, Sadakat Ali Miya, Laxmi Poudel, Nira Chantyal, Bijay Kumar Gurung, Lucky Gurung, Shalikram Acharya, Dr. Ganesh Thapa, Mohan Prakash Shrestha, Sita Gurung, Jamuna Sharma, Bandana Sunar, Serbin Shrestha, Anusha Gurung 

and Shiva Kumar Gurung will be done in Pokhara.