The Australian Federal Police is sending five forensic specialists to Nepal to help formally identify and recover the bodies of two Australians killed in a plane crash.
The AFP said the specialist Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) team, including a pathologist and four other forensic experts, would leave Australia for Nepal this evening.
"The DVI team will be working in close cooperation with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to assist in the recovery and repatriation effort," the AFP said in a statement today.
"The team will be based in the capital Kathmandu alongside a German forensic team and Nepalese authorities who are working to recover and identify 12 Germans and four Nepalese also killed in the crash.
"Earlier this week, AFP forensic and family liaison officers visited the victims' families in Melbourne to provide support and to collect DNA and dental records which will be carried to Nepal with the DVI team to assist the identification."
Australians Andrew Frick McLeod, 31, and his girlfriend Charlene Kate Zamudio, 24, died along with 12 German tourists, and four Nepalese when the plane clipped a security fence while landing at Lukla's Tenzing-Hillary airport on Wednesday.
Of the 19 people on board the Yeti Airlines plane, only the pilot survived Wednesday's crash.
The DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter plane crashed and burst into flames as it tried to land in foggy weather at Lukla airport, about 60km from Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak. It had taken off in Katmandu.
The tiny Lukla airport, carved into the side of the Himalayas at an altitude of 2,800 metres, is known for its dramatic scenery and a runway that ends in a steep drop of a few hundred metres.
It is an important jumping-off point for trekkers and mountaineers heading to Mount Everest.
A Nepalese doctor yesterday said identification of the badly charred bodies of 14 foreign tourists, including the two Australians, had been delayed by a shortage of experts and lack of equipment.
