Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
People carry the body of a person who died in a helicopter crash near Mount Everest on Tuesday, July 11, 2023, at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu.
CNN
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6 people died in the helicopter crash NepalA spokesman for Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport said on Tuesday.
The Manang Air helicopter was carrying five Mexican passengers and a Nepali pilot, Teknath Situla told CNN.
Manang Air caters to tourists who want to see Nepal’s peaks, Reuters reported Mount EverestThe highest mountain in the world.
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It took off from Solukhumbu district, where Everest is located, at 10:05 a.m. local time (12:20 a.m. ET) on Tuesday for the capital Kathmandu, according to a statement issued by Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority.
The helicopter lost contact 10 minutes later, at 10:13 a.m., and then crashed in the rural municipality of Likupike, Solukumbu, the authority said.
Locals and police rushed to the crash site and found the bodies of all the people on board.
“All six bodies have been recovered. We have now started operations to take them to Kathmandu. It will take some time as it will mean traveling by road from the accident site and then flying to Kathmandu,” Sitoula told CNN.
He further said that the cause of the accident has not been ascertained yet.
Nepal’s inclement weather, low visibility, and mountainous terrain contribute to its reputation as extremely dangerous for air travel.
In January, at least 68 people were killed when a plane crashed near the city of Pokhara in central Nepal. It is a Himalayan nation Worst plane crash ever For more than 30 years.