One among passenger in a helicopter with seven people onboard which crash-landed in the forest area bordering Dhading and Nuwakot districts in central Nepal on Saturday has survived, authorities said.
“Six passengers, including a Japanese national, died after a chopper with 7 people aboard crashed in Nepal. One female passenger has been rescued,” Chief District Officer of Nuwakot District, Uddab Bahadur Thapa said.
A Nepal Army helicopter and a private chopper along with rescuers was despatched to the crash site.
The helicopter which took off for Kathmandu airlifting a patient along with other passengers from Samagaun in Gorkha had lost radio contact with Kathmandu air traffic control after flying some 20 miles at around 8:10 am, a source at Tribhuvan International Airport said. A Japanese trekker was among the passengers.
Eyewitnesses later said the helicopter crash-landed in the forest area bordering Dhading and Nuwakot districts.
Earlier, the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said the chopper had been spotted in Satyawati inside a dense forest but bad weather had hampered initial rescue operations.
The wreckage of the ill-fated chopper piloted by senior captain Nishchal K C was spotted by locals in a remote location in Nuwakot district, said Nima Nuru Sherpa, Managing Director at Altitude Air Pvt Ltd, the Himalayan Times reported.
{{/usCountry}}The wreckage of the ill-fated chopper piloted by senior captain Nishchal K C was spotted by locals in a remote location in Nuwakot district, said Nima Nuru Sherpa, Managing Director at Altitude Air Pvt Ltd, the Himalayan Times reported.
{{/usCountry}}“Rescuers have been struggling hard to reach the accident site,” Sherpa said. He added that the crashed chopper had not caught fire.