Five Dead in Helicopter Crash in Nepal Mountains

All five people on board a helicopter were killed when it crashed Wednesday in the mountains just northwest of Nepal’s capital, authorities said. The bodies of four men and a woman were pulled from the wreckage, according to Krishna Prasad Humagai, the government administrator of Nuwakot district. Police and army rescuers reached the area, and two rescue helicopters were also sent to assist in the operation. The crash site is in the Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, on a forested mountain.

The helicopter, an Eurocopter AS350 belonging to Nepal-based Air Dynasty, took off from Kathmandu international airport at 1:54 p.m. local time and was heading towards the town of Syaprubeshi. It lost contact with the tower just three minutes after takeoff, as per a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. The four passengers were Chinese nationals, and the pilot was a Nepali man, officials said.

This crash comes two weeks after a passenger plane crash shortly after takeoff from Kathmandu airport, which killed 18 people and injured the pilot, the lone survivor. All the people onboard the Saurya Airlines flight, including the co-pilot, were Nepali except for one Yemeni national. The Bombardier CRJ 200 plane was heading to Nepal’s second-most populous city, Pokhara, for maintenance work. Most of the passengers aboard were either mechanics or airline employees.

A government investigation has been ordered into the crash. The injured pilot has since returned home from the hospital with injuries to his eyes.