{"id":344643,"date":"2023-07-11T07:42:42","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T13:12:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=344643"},"modified":"2023-07-11T07:42:50","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T13:12:50","slug":"5-mexicans-nepali-pilot-killed-in-helicopter-crash-near-mt-everest-in-nepal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/5-mexicans-nepali-pilot-killed-in-helicopter-crash-near-mt-everest-in-nepal\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Mexicans, Nepali pilot killed in helicopter crash near Mt Everest in Nepal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Kathmandu: All six people, including five members of a Mexican family, were killed in a fiery crash of a private commercial helicopter near Mount Everest in eastern Nepal on Tuesday, a senior airport official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Manang Air NA-MV chopper took off from Surke Airport in Solukhumbu district at 10:04 am for Kathmandu and suddenly lost contact at an altitude above 12,000 feet at 10:13 am, said Gyanendra Bhul, Manager at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The helicopter crashed in the Lamjura area of Likhupike Rural Municipality in the remote mountainous Solukhumbu district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TIA spokesperson Tkeknath Sitaula said all six bodies were found at the crash site during a search operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were returning to Kathmandu from Surke after enjoying a mountain flight. The flight was conducted from Lukla, the gateway to Mount Everest, Sitaula said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All six people aboard the chopper have died in the accident, The Kathmandu Post newspaper quoted operation and safety manager of Manang Air Raju Neupane as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six people including Captain Chet Bahadur Gurung and five Mexican nationals were aboard the aircraft, the official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police have established the identities of the deceased, District police chief Dipak Shrestha said, adding the accident is believed to have been caused due to bad weather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All five foreign passengers are members of a Mexican family. They have been identified as Sifuentes G. Fernando (95) and Sifuentes Rincon Ismail (98), both males, along with three females – Sifuentes Gongalez Abril (72), Gongalez Olacio Luz (65) and Sifuentes G. Maria Jese (52), MyRepublica news portal reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, a senior official at TIA said locals informed him that the helicopter crashed with a loud explosion and they saw fire at the crash site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe locals discovered the crashed helicopter at Chihandanda,\u201d said rural municipality deputy chair Nwang Lhakpa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last location of the chopper was tracked at 10:12 am in the Lamjura Pass area, said Neupane. Local police were mobilised in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepal’s tourist and mountaineering season ended in May. The flights carrying tourists to the mountains are less common this time of year as visibility is poor and weather conditions fickle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu: All six people, including five members of a Mexican family, were killed in a fiery crash of a private commercial helicopter near Mount Everest in eastern Nepal on Tuesday, a senior airport official said. The Manang Air NA-MV chopper took off from Surke Airport in Solukhumbu district at 10:04 am for Kathmandu and suddenly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":344644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15084,36],"tags":[15580,16983,16984],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344645,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344643\/revisions\/344645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/344644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}