4 of Thane family among 22 on board missing Nepal plane

THANE/BHUBANESHWAR: A pall of gloom descended on the highrise towers at Rustomjee Athena at Majiwada of Thane as neighbours learnt about a family of four being part of 22 on board the Nepal plane that went missing on Sunday.
Those who on the missing plane, which reportedly crashed near Lamche river, have been identified as Ashok Kumar Tripathy (50), his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar and their children Dhanush (23) and Ritika (15). While neighbours were reluctant to speak, one of them said it was an "unfortunate incident which has shocked everyone". The building is home to Vaibhavi, who stays there with her aged mother and two children. Her mother is undergoing treatment at home and is critical, said a senior police officer.
The family of four had decided to go for a tour to Nepal where they were also supposed to visit temples. While Vaibhavi, a software engineer, works at a private firm in Bandra-Kurla complex, Ashok owns an HR consultancy firm in Odisha's Bhubaneshwar, the officer said, adding that Ashok also has a house in Borivli. Their son, Dhanush, is an engineering graduate while daughter Ritika is in school, said sources.
The incident occured on Sunday morning when a small plane of Nepal's Tara Air went missing in the mountainous region of the Himalayan nation minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara. The plane had four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew, said sources. The plane was flying from the city of Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal.
Ashok, who is the fourth among the five siblings (all brothers), has a younger twin Rajen Tripathy, who works as a software engineer in Pune. In Bhubaneswar, Ashok lives in a posh Jayadev Vihar Square residence with his caretaker Parasuram. A native of Sonepur town, Ashok hails from a reputed family. His father Krushna Prasad Tripathy, who retired as district judge, died 11 years ago while he lost his mother, a homemaker, in 2020.
"Ashok planned the Nepal trip with me when he had come to Sonepur. Somehow I could not make it. On May 26, he started from Bhubaneswar, and after a day's stay in Mumbai along with his family, he left for Nepal. He was very happy about the trip," recalled Ashok's cousin Kanan Tripathy, who is a banker in Sonepur.
Ashok's caretaker told TOI, "On the day sir (Ashok) left for Mumbai, he didn't tell us when he would return. He just told me to take care of the house." As search operations were hindered due to bad weather and the hilly terrain, the status of the aircraft was still unknown at the time of going to the press, said sources.