Grieving families start receiving bodies of Nepal air crash victims

Seventy bodies retrieved so far; search continues for two missing bodies

Nepali hospital staff began the grim task of handing over bodies to grieving families on Tuesday after a plane with 72 people on board crashed, the country's worst aviation disaster in three decades.

The Yeti Airlines flight with 68 passengers and four crew plummeted into a steep gorge, smashed into pieces and burst into flames as it approached the central city of Pokhara on Sunday.

All those on board, including six children and 15 foreigners, are believed to have died.

Rescuers have been working almost around the clock recovering human remains from the 300m-deep gorge strewn with twisted plane seats and chunks of fuselage and wing.

Seventy bodies had been retrieved by early Tuesday, police official AK Chhetri said.

"We retrieved one body last night. But it was three pieces. We are not sure whether it's three bodies or one body. It will be confirmed only after DNA test," the official said.

He said the search for the other two missing bodies has resumed.