Bodies of plane crash victims flown home

The bodies of the 23 Bangladeshis killed in a plane crash in Nepal were flown home yesterday as mourners prepared a massive funeral.A Bangladesh Air Force cargo plane, bearing the coffins, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.Ruling Bangladeshi Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader, also the road transport minister, received the bodies at the airport, Xinhua news agency reported.The bodies include those of pilot Abid Sultan, co-pilot Prithula Rashid and crew members, Khwaja Hossain Mohammad Shafey and Sharmeen Akter Nabila.At least 51 people were killed as the aircraft of Bangladesh’s private US-Bangla Airlines, with 71 people onboard, crashed and burst into flames while landing at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on March 12.Bangladesh and Nepal civil aviation authorities have launched a joint investigation, amid reports of confusion between the pilot and air traffic control over the runway approach.Thousands of people including government high-ups and relatives and well-wishers of the victims gathered at an Army Stadium in the capital for ‘namaz-e-janaza’ (funeral prayer).The bodies were handed over to the relatives after the funeral service.Of 71 people, four were cabin crew, 32 people were from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives. Bodies of three more Bangladeshi crash victims will be flown back to Bangladesh after their identities are confirmed through DNA tests.