Nepal Plane Hits Parked Helicopter While Taking Off, Killing Three

Reuters
By Reuters
April 14, 2019World News
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Nepal Plane Hits Parked Helicopter While Taking Off, Killing Three
A helicopter carrying the bodies of the victims of a small aircraft belonging to Summit Air, that crashed with a helicopter parked at Lukla airport, waits to get transported for postmortem examination at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, on April 14, 2019. (Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

KATHMANDU—A small plane operated by a private airline in Nepal hit a parked helicopter on Sunday while preparing to take off in a mountainous area near Mount Everest, killing three people including a co-pilot, an airport official said.

The Twin Otter aircraft crashed into the helicopter at Tenzing Hillary Airport at Lukla, known as the gateway to the world’s highest mountain, 125 km (78 miles) northeast of capital Kathmandu.

Emergency crews are seen at the site of an airplane crash in Lukla
Emergency crews are seen at the site of an airplane crash in Lukla, Nepal, on April 14, 2019. (Ang Tashi Sherpa/Handout via REUTERS)

The plane, operated by Summit Air, was not carrying passengers as it was trying to leave what is considered to be one of the world’s most dangerous airports due to the shortness of its runway and its location surrounded by mountains.

Officials said the cause of the incident was not immediately known.

Emergency crews walk at the site of an airplane crash in Lukla
Emergency crews walk at the site of an airplane crash in Lukla, Nepal, on April 14, 2019. (Ang Tashi Sherpa/Handout via REUTERS)

“Two people died on the spot and the third one died while undergoing treatment in a hospital in Kathmandu,” airport official Pratap Babu Tiwari told Reuters.

The dead included two security guards who were near the helicopter. The pilot of the plane was among three people injured, though the lone stewardess escaped unhurt.

The site of an airplane crash is pictured in Lukla
The site of an airplane crash is pictured in Lukla, Nepal, on April 14, 2019. (Ang Tashi Sherpa/Handout via REUTERS)

Air crashes are common in mostly mountainous Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountain peaks, including Mount Everest.

In February a helicopter carrying seven people including the country’s tourism minister crashed in bad weather in eastern Nepal, killing seven all on board.

People gather at the site of an airplane crash in Lukla
People gather at the site of an airplane crash in Lukla, Nepal, on April 14, 2019. (Ang Tashi Sherpa/Handout via REUTERS)

The Lukla airport was built by New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary – who together with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first to reach the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) Everest peak in 1953 – as a gift to the people of the remote Solukhumbu region where it is located.

People gather at the site of an airplane crash in Lukla
People gather at the site of an airplane crash in Lukla, Nepal, on April 14, 2019. (Ang Tashi Sherpa/Handout via REUTERS)

In 2008, another Twin Otter plane carrying 16 passengers and three crew crashed shortly before it was due to land at Lukla.

By Gopal Sharma

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