The fate of Vaibhavi Tripathi, her husband Ashok Kumar Tripathi and their children - Dhanush and Ritika - residents of Thane city adjoining Mumbai, and 18 others travelling with them in the Tara Air plane, is yet to be known hours after the aircraft crashed in the mountainous region of the Himalayan nation minutes after taking off
Representative image. Pic/Istock
When Mumbai police personnel on Sunday contacted the elder sister of Vaibhavi (Bandekar) Tripathi, who was on board the plane that crashed in Nepal earlier in the day, she requested them not to tell anything about the incident to her mother, saying she was already in a critical condition, an official said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The fate of Vaibhavi Tripathi, her husband Ashok Kumar Tripathi and their children - Dhanush and Ritika - residents of Thane city adjoining Mumbai, and 18 others travelling with them in the Tara Air plane, is yet to be known hours after the aircraft crashed in the mountainous region of the Himalayan nation minutes after taking off, officials said.
"Following the incident, the Indian Embassy in Nepal contacted the Mumbai police asking them to find the residence of the four family members who were on board the plane, and inform the relatives about it. Accordingly, a team of the Borivali police station got in touch with one Seema Prabhu, who resides in Vaibhavi (Bandekar) Tripathi's housing society. She gave Vaibhavi's elder sister Sanjeevani Sadani's contact number, who lives with her mother in Thane," an official said.
"The police contacted Vaibhavi's sister and shared the information with her. But she told our personnel that she had already got in touch with the Indian embassy in Nepal. She then requested the police not to tell anything about the incident to her mother as her health condition is critical," he added.
The official said that the address mentioned on Vaibhavi's passport said she is a resident of Bhushan Park View Society at Chikuwadi in Borivali. But when the police team went to that place, it was found that the flat had been rented out, he said.
Later, the police team found out that the Tripathi family currently resides in Thane city and their house is located in the area under the jurisdiction of Kapurbawdi police station, while Sadani lives with her mother in A nearby area, the police official said.
The Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Tara Air took off at 10:15 am from Pokhara, and lost contact with the control tower 15 minutes later. The plane was later spotted in a state of burning at Laningchgola, an upper area of Larikota in Thasang Rural Municipality-2 in Mustang district.
Driver says he had dropped Tripathi family to Mumbai airport two days back
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.
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
