CNN — Six people have died in a helicopter crash in Nepal, a spokesperson for Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport said Tuesday. The Manang Air helicopter was carrying five Mexican passengers and a
CNN
—
Six people have died in a helicopter crash in Nepal, a spokesperson for Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport said Tuesday.
The Manang Air helicopter was carrying five Mexican passengers and a Nepali pilot, Teknath Sitoula told CNN.
Reuters reported that Manang Air caters to tourists wanting a view of Nepal’s peaks, including Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain.
It set off from Solukhumbu district, where Everest is situated, at 10:05 a.m. local time (12:20 a.m. ET) on Tuesday, heading for the capital, Kathmandu, according to a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
The helicopter lost contact less than 10 minutes later, at 10:13 a.m., and was later found crashed in Solukhumbu’s rural municipality of Likhupike, according to the authority.
It added that locals and police who reached the crash site found the bodies of all on board.
“All six bodies have been located. We are now starting the process to take them to Kathmandu. It will take some time because it means traveling by road from the crash site and then flying to Kathmandu,” Sitoula told CNN.
He added that the cause of the crash has not yet been determined.
Nepal’s inclement weather, low visibility and mountainous topography all contribute to its reputation as notoriously dangerous for aviation.
In January, at least 68 people were killed when an aircraft went down near the city of Pokhara in central Nepal. This was the Himalayan nation’s deadliest plane crash in more than 30 years.
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(LEX 18) — For two decades, the depths of Lake Cumberland have contained a mystery. Sitting somewhere at the bottom of the lake has been a helicopter that crashed in 2002, which lead to no deaths.
After years of searches by multiple parties, the helicopter was found and brought to shore this week.
MYSTERY SOLVED: A helicopter emerged from Lake Cumberland today after spending 20 years 100 feet underwater. Everyone got out safe when it crashed, but the wreckage site remained a mystery.
I’ll have how a determined group of locals solved that mystery tonight @ 11 on @LEX18News pic.twitter.com/yibQf1P7Rm
— Ricky Sayer (@RickyReports) September 14, 2022
“It was a crazy idea [I had] as a child, it became a feasible idea 5 years ago.”
Alex Ashley was 10 years old when the helicopter crashed during a Poker Run in 2002. He organized the effort to find and recover the helicopter, which was being used to film the event from above.
To find it, Helm turned to his now friend, Landon Helm, who watched the crash.
“I said they are all looking in the wrong spot,” Helm said he told Ashley, referring to other search teams. “This is where I saw it go down.”
Ashley purchased a boat already equipped with specialized sonar equipment. He spent 18 hours scanning the lakebed. After the equipment picked up something last week, he brought in the team of Jerry Stephens, Chris Money, and Matt McDaniel. They are firefighters in Nicholasville and they helped by scuba diving to find the helicopter.
“It was surreal definitely,” Money said “I had to touch it a couple of times to known it was real.”
One of them brought something special back up to shore for Alex.
“They brought the pilots headset up, it was amazing, it was cool” he said.
Slowly, using barrels filled with air to lift the helicopter, they started bringing it to shore Tuesday.
“It’s pretty cool you know I was one of the last people to see it go down and one of the first to see it come up,” Helm said.
By sundown, the helicopter was out of the water. Ashley said he may place it in one if his businesses.
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