Bodies of 23 Bangladeshi plane crash victims flown home

DHAKA-- The bodies of the 23 Bangladeshis killed in a plane crash in Nepal returned home Monday, as mourners prepared a massive funeral. 

A Bangladesh Air Force cargo plane, bearing the coffins, landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in capital Dhaka at about 4:05 p.m. (local time). 

Ruling Bangladeshi Awami League party General Secretary Obaidul Quader, also road transport minister, officially received the bodies at the airport. 

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 Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on March 12. 
Thousands of people including government high-ups and relatives and well-wishers of the victims gathered at an Army Stadium in capital Dhaka for Namaz-e-Janaza (funeral prayer). 

The bodies were handed over to the victims' relatives after the funeral service. 
The US-Bangla plane was carrying 71 people, including four cabin crew. Of the 67 passengers, 32 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 soon after their identities are confirmed through DNA tests.