Nepal plane crash: Driver says he had dropped Tripathi family to Mumbai airport two days back

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For 29-year-old Ashish Sawant, it came as a big shock when he heard that four members of the Tripathi family, for whom he works as a driver here, were on board the plane that crashed in Nepal on Sunday, as recalled dropping them to the Mumbai airport just two days back.

"I have lost everything," he said with tears rolling down his cheeks even as the fate of the Tripathi family and 18 others on board the ill-fated plane remained unclear as bad weather made it difficult to locate the aircraft that went missing in the mountainous region of Nepal minutes after taking off on Sunday morning.

According to the police here, Ashok Kumar Tripathi (54), his wife Vaibhavi (Bandekar) Tripathi, their 22-year-old son Dhanush and 15-year-old daughter Ritika were on board the Nepalese plane.

Sawant, who resides at Diva in Thane, said he has been working as the Tripathi family's driver for the last seven years and used to drop Vaibhavi Tripathi to her office in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai. "It was just two days back that I had dropped the family to the Mumbai international airport and today I received this shocking news," he said.

After learning that the Tripathi family was travelling in the plane in Nepal, he rushed to their house in Rustomjee Athena apartment located in Balkum area of the city, to enquire about them.

He also said that it was just two months back they had purchased a new car. The watchman of the building, 55-year-old Sunil Chalke, said the Tripathi family members were very loving. "It is sad that they part of this tragedy," he said. The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Tara Air took off at 10.15 am from Pokhara in Nepal to Jomsom, another popular tourist town. The aircraft lost contact with the control tower 15 minutes later, according to an airline spokesperson. The missing plane could possibly be located on Monday, officials have said.

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