Helicopter with six on board crashes near Mount Everest in Nepal; 5 bodies recovered

A private commercial helicopter with six people aboard, including five Mexican nationals, which went missing near the Mount Everest area in Nepal on Tuesday (July 11) has crashed in a hilly terrain in the country’s eastern region, aviation officials said.

The Manang Air NA-MV chopper had gone missing minutes after it took off from the Surke Airport in Solukhumbu district at 10:04 am for Kathmandu as it suddenly lost contact at an altitude above 12,000 feet at 10:13 am, said Gyanendra Bhul, manager at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

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Search operation underway

Five bodies have been recovered from the accident site, a media report said. According to the police, the helicopter met with an accident at approximately 3,500 metres above sea level in the Lamjura Pass area, The Himalayan Times newspaper reported. “Five bodies have been recovered from the accident site and a search operation is underway,” the report quoted the police as saying.

According to a senior official at TIA, the helicopter crashed in the Lamjura Pass area of Likhupike Rural Municipality in the remote mountainous Solukhumbu district. A detailed report is yet to come as the rescue operation is underway.

The official said that the locals informed him that the helicopter crashed with a loud explosion and they saw fire at the crash site. The locals discovered the crashed helicopter at Chihandanda, rural municipality deputy chairman Nwang Lhakpa was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post newspaper.

Reason not known

The last location of the chopper was tracked at 10:12 am in the Lamjura Pass area, said Raju Neupane, operation and safety manager of Manang Air. The local police have been mobilised in the area. Two helicopters sent earlier to locate the crash site had to return due to bad weather, the senior airport official said, adding that the exact reason behind the crash is not known yet.

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Five Mexican nationals and pilot Chet B Gurung were on board the helicopter. According to MyRepublica news portal citing sources, the bodies of five of the six people on board the helicopter were found at the crash site. Earlier, TIA spokesperson Teknath Sitaula told the news website, “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 search is underway.”

Founded in 1997, Manang Air is a helicopter airline based in Kathmandu. It has been operating helicopters for commercial air transportation within the Nepalese territory under the Regulation of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. The company provides chartered services focusing on personalised services such as adventure flights helicopter excursions or expedition work.