A helicopter carrying six people has vanished near Mount Everest as fears mount over its whereabouts.
The aircraft was carrying five foreign tourists on a sightseeing tour to the world’s highest peak and was returning to the capital, Kathmandu, on Tuesday morning but it was not heard from.
It was lost from radar after departing from the mountainous Solukhumbu district in eastern Nepal and initial media reports indicated that all foreign nationals on board were Mexican.
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 helicopter was carrying 6 people including the pilot, 5 of whom were tourists from the same family from Mexico.
Six people are confirmed dead after the tourist helicopter crashed in Nepal’s Mount Everest region.
‘Honourable Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has expressed grief over the incident of Manang Air helicopter flying from Surke, Solukhumbu to Kathmandu, in which 5 people died and 1 passenger was missing,’ PMO Nepal tweeted.
All six dead bodies have been airlifted to Kathmandu Teaching Hospital for post-mortem, tweeted Tribhuvan International Airport Civil Aviation Office.
