Helicopter with six on board crashes near Mount Everest in Nepal; no survivors

The chopper had taken off from Surki in Solukhumbu district to Nepal's capital city of Kathmandu at 9.45 am today morning.

By: Express Web Desk

Kathmandu | Updated: July 11, 2023 02:48 PM IST

2 min read

Helicopter with six on board is missing near Mount Everest in Nepal. (Representational image via Canva)

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A helicopter with six people on board, which had been reported missing near Mount Everest in Nepal, crashed on Tuesday. There are no survivors, said a local media report quoting police officials.

The chopper, a part of the Manang Air fleet, took off for Kathmandu at 9.45 am and was out of contact within 15 minutes, as per a report in The Kathmandu Post. It crashed at Lamjura in Solukhumbu district, the report added.

The pin shows the location of Lamjura, where the helicopter went missing.

The crash was reported by locals who found the wreckage at Chihandanda in Lamjura.

District Police Chief Dipak Shrestha said that the accident is believed to be caused by bad weather. However, Manang Air spokesperson said that the helicopter took off in good weather and the cause of the crash can be determined only after an investigation. “The weather was not bad. Now we can’t say what caused the crash. It will have to be investigated,” he said.

The chopper carried Captain Chet Bahadur Gurung and five Mexican nationals, all of whom have passed away. Police have established the identities of the deceased, said a report in Kathmandu Post quoting Shrestha. The remains will be airlifted to Kathmandu after completion of proper documentation, Shrestha added.

“The bodies have broken into pieces,” a Solukhumbu district official told the news agency Reuters, adding, “More police have been sent to the location. Only then will we know details.”

“It has been reported that the helicopter of Manang Air is out of contact, there is no contact with the tower when it reached the Lamjura pass, it was reported that the helicopter only received a ‘hello’ message on Viber,” the country’s Tribhuvan International Airport spokesperson Teknath Sitaula earlier told Kathmandu-based My Republica news website.

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The helicopter, with a call sign of 9N-AMV, had taken off from Surki in Solukhumbu district, home to Mount Everest and other mountains, to Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu. Its last location was tracked at 10.12 am in the Lamjura Pass area, The Kathmandu Post report said.

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