Helicopter with 6 people onboard goes missing in Nepal
KATHMANDU – A helicopter with six people onboard went missing on Tuesday in Nepal, officials said.
The helicopter was flying to Kathmandu from Solukhumbu district, where Mount Everest is located.
Raju Neupane, manager at Manang Air, said the people in the helicopter comprised the pilot and five passengers, all foreign nationals.
The helicopter went off the radar at 10.12 a.m. on Tuesday morning, according to civil aviation authorities.
The helicopter was originally heading to Lukla near the Mount Everest base camp but could not land due to bad weather.
Then the helicopter landed in Surke, Solukhumbu, following which it was headed to Kathmandu.
A team has been mobilised for a search and rescue operation, said Neupane.
Nepal Police on Tuesday announced that a helicopter which went missing while flying to Kathmandu from Solukhumbu district earlier in the day, has crashed, killing five people on board, while one person remained unaccounted for.
The Manang Air helicopter crashed at the Lamjura area in Likhupike Rural Municipality, the police said.
The area lies between Jiri and Phaplu, near Mount Everest.
Niranjan Basnet, a junior police officer who is stationed at the crash site, said the five bodies have been found and a search operation is on to find the sixth missinng person.
Raju Neupane, the operations and safety manager at Manang Air, said the six people on board comprised Captain Chet Bahadur Gurung and five Mexican nationals.
According to rural municipality deputy chair Nwang Lhakpa Sherpa, locals discovered the crashed chopper.
The last location of the chopper, with the registration number 9N-AMV, was tracked at 10.12 a.m. in the Lamjura Pass area , said Neupane.
The helicopter was originally heading to Lukla near the Mount Everest base camp but could not land due to bad weather.
Then the helicopter landed in Surke, Solukhumbu, following which it was headed to Kathmandu.
Also read: Vegetable vendor, son arrested for ‘bouncer show’ while selling tomatoes
