Investigation Summary
The flight departed Pokhara for a short 19-minute hop to Jomsom, a route notorious for high winds and rapidly changing weather. Although the airline reported favorable weather at the terminals, the route through the Kali Gandaki Gorge was obscured by thick clouds. The co-pilot was the Pilot Flying (PF) while the captain acted as Pilot Monitoring (PM). To avoid clouds, the crew deviated from the standard track and climbed to 12,000 feet. As they entered the Ghorepani area, the aircraft became enveloped in clouds. The GPWS began sounding, but the captain, who had developed a habit of ignoring such warnings during routine mountain operations, told the co-pilot not to worry. Approximately one minute before impact, the captain took control and initiated a climb, but the aircraft struck a mountainside at 10,700 feet. The wreckage was found burning at an elevation of nearly 11,000 feet. The investigation highlighted a culture of 'normalization of deviance' where pilots frequently flew in IMC while officially on VFR flight plans to maintain schedules in the challenging Himalayan environment.
Final Conclusions
The Nepal Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (AAIC) released its final report 17 months after the accident. The commission concluded that the probable cause was the crew's repeated decision to enter clouds during VFR flight and their deviation from the normal track. This led to a loss of situational awareness and spatial disorientation, resulting in a CFIT accident. The report also noted the captain's habituation to GPWS warnings as a significant contributing factor.
Video Analysis
The ILLEGAL Flight That Destroyed 23 Lives - Tara Air 193 — A detailed look at how Tara Air Flight 193 flew into a Himalayan gorge under zero visibility, ignoring terrain warnings until impact.
If playback is blocked, the owner has disabled embedding — use the link above.
Airframe & Maintenance
Crew Experience
Captain
Had 18,500 hours on DHC-6 type.
First Officer
Total hours and type experience per official investigation findings.
Systems & Failure Modes
GPWS (Ground Proximity Warning System)
A system designed to alert pilots if their aircraft is in immediate danger of flying into the ground. In this case, the captain had become habituated to 'nuisance' warnings in the mountains and ignored valid alerts.
VFR (Visual Flight Rules)
A set of regulations under which a pilot operates an aircraft in weather conditions generally clear enough to allow the pilot to see where the aircraft is going. The crew illegally continued the flight after visual contact with the terrain was lost.
Interesting Facts
- 01The aircraft was only six months old at the time of the crash, having been delivered in September 2015.
- 02The captain had over 20,000 total flight hours, while the co-pilot had only 716 total hours and 14 hours on the DHC-6 type.
- 03The flight was required to operate under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) but entered Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC).
- 04The GPWS warnings were active for several minutes prior to the crash but were disregarded by the captain.
- 05The wreckage was found spread across a 200-meter area at an elevation of approximately 10,982 feet.
Safety Actions & Advisories
GPWS Training and Discipline
The investigation emphasized the need for strict adherence to GPWS warnings and the dangers of 'warning fatigue' or habituation in mountainous flight operations.
Location
APPROXIMATE POSITION · AIRPORT LEVEL · Coordinates are the estimate published in the official investigation report. The ring shows the accuracy the record supports, not the point of impact.