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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Michael Howie

Mount Everest tourist helicopter crashes killing all six people on board

A sightseeing helicopter carrying foreign tourists has crashed near Mount Everest killing all six people on board, according to officials.

The aircraft was carrying five Mexican tourists on a sightseeing tour to the world’s highest peak and was returning to Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, when it disappeared on Tuesday morning.

It crashed in the Lamajura area and rescuers had recovered the bodies of five people and were searching for the sixth, according to Basanta Bhattarai, the chief government administrator in the area.

Sita Adhikari, a regional official in the district of Solukhumbu, the site of the crash, later said rescuers have retrieved the bodies of all six.

“More police have been sent to the location. Only then will we know details,” he said.

An airport official, Teknath Sitoula, said a Nepali pilot and the five Mexican nationals had been on board.

All five passengers were members of the same Mexican family, according to reports.

“The helicopter took off ... in good weather," said Raju Neupane, a spokesperson for Manang Air, which operated the chopper.

“The weather was not bad. Now we can't say what caused the crash. It will have to be investigated.”

According to The Kathmandu Post, the helicopter took off for the capital at 9.45am local time and was out of contact within 15 minutes.

A search effort was launched involving another helicopter in the sky and police and soldiers on the ground. Much of the mountainous area is only accessible on foot with no roads.

Airport official Sagar Kadel said weather conditions had caused changes to be made to the helicopter’s flight route.

It is common for flights to be delayed and routes changed during the monsoon season amid heavy rains.

The tourist and mountaineering season ended in May with the onset of the rainy season and tourist flights to the mountains are not common at this time of year as visibility gets poor and weather conditions become unpredictable.

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