The helicopter crashed in Likhupike Rural Municipality of the remote mountainous Solukhumbu District.
Kathmandu:
Five Mexican nationals who were killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Nepal near Mount Everest arrived in India on Tuesday ahead of their trip to the Himalayan nation for sightseeing.
The Manang Air helicopter 9N-AMV took off from Surke airport in Solukhumbu district at 10:04 am on Tuesday for Kathmandu and suddenly lost contact at 10:13 am at an altitude of over 12,000 feet.
The helicopter crashed in the Lamjura area of Likhupike Rural Municipality in the remote mountainous Solukhumbu district.
The deceased pilot has been identified as Captain CB Gurung, a Nepalese national. The five passengers killed in the crash – all Mexican nationals – were identified as Fernando Cifuentes (95), Abril Cifuentes Gonzalez (72), Luz Gonzalez Olasio (65), María José Cifuentes (52) and Ismael Rincón (98). Went.
The family also visited India because one of the victims, Abril Cifuentes González, posted a photo of himself on a social media platform in front of the Taj Mahal on July 5, a few days before the accident.
According to Mexican News Daily, Federico Salas, Mexico’s ambassador to India, said the victims were family members originally from Nuevo León.
“Actually, it was a family of five people who were tourists. They went to Nepal. (…) They were a father and mother and three children. (…) The parents and children were adults, they were Not the small ones”, Salas was quoted as saying by Infobey Mexico.
Meanwhile, the bodies have been airlifted to Kathmandu and kept at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital for post-mortem, Gyanendra Bhul, information officer of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), was quoted as saying by The Himalayan Times newspaper.
Speaking to the media in Janakpurdham, Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Sudan Kirati announced that the government would conduct a comprehensive inquiry to uncover the factors that led to the unfortunate incident.
“All the passengers who died were from the same Mexican family and had taken a mountain flight yesterday as well as a flight to the Khumbu region to observe the Sherpa culture,” said Mukti Pandey, director of Manang Air.
Nepal’s tourism and mountaineering season ended in May. Flights carrying tourists to the mountains are few at this time of year as visibility is low and weather conditions are unstable.
Established in 1997, Manang Air is a helicopter airline based in Kathmandu. It is operating helicopters in commercial air transport within Nepali territory under the regulation of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
The company offers chartered services and focuses on personalized services such as adventure flights, helicopter tours or expedition work.
Nepal has an appalling record of aviation accidents, partly due to its sudden weather changes and airstrips located in inhospitable rocky terrain.
According to CAAN records, there have been 35 fatal helicopter accidents in Nepal.
In 2023 alone, four helicopter accidents were recorded in the country.
In early May, a Simrik Air helicopter crashed in Sankhuwasabha district, tragically killing one passenger while four others were injured. Similarly, Heli Everest and Air Dynasty helicopters crashed this year, but there were no casualties.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV Staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)