Kathmandu, Sept.
8: Six people, including the pilot and one Japanese national, died when an
Altitude Air helicopter met with an accident while flying to Kathmandu from Samagaun
of Gorkha district Saturday morning.
The deceased are
identified as Nischal KC (senior captain), Dilli Bahadur Gurung, Chhiri Sherpa,
Sunil Lama, Chhewang Norbu Lama and Japanese national Hiromi Komatsu, according
to the Civil Aviation Office at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
Lho Ani Dolma Diki
of Gorkha was rescued alive from the accident site. She has injuries in her
legs.
The chopper was
carrying six passengers.
The chopper with
call sign 9N-ALS crashed in a dense forest area at Nuwakot-Dhading border in
Medhang Rural Municipality – 1, Barsungchet Mailungpakha, TIA said.
The helicopter
lost contact with the TIA tower at around 8:00 am in the morning.
The accident
site is at the altitude of about 5,500 feet.
According to the
Altitude Air, bad weather could be the reason behind the fatal accident.
“Due to bad
weather it took us about one and a half hour to begin search for the helicopted
after it went out of contact. Four choppers of Altitude, Simrik Air and Shree
Airlines were mobilised with the medical team. But we were unable to reach the
locations till the afternoon,” said Sita Ram Sapkota, Marketing Manager of the
company.
The helicopter
was added to the Altitude fleet in 2016, and Captain KC had the experience of
more than 8,500 hours in the air.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 9 September 2018.
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