A helicopter crashed in central Nepal on Wednesday, killing all five people on board, including the pilot and four Chinese tourists.
Nepal has a poor record on aviation safety and the Himalayan republic has been hit by a spate of fatal light aircraft and helicopter crashes over the past several decades.
The Air Dynasty helicopter was flying from the capital Kathmandu to Syabrubesi, the starting point of several trekking routes popular among tourists.
It lost contact about three minutes after take-off and crashed in Nuwakot district, north of the capital, a press release issued by the Civil Aviation Authority said.
He said that another helicopter was immediately sent to the accident site for rescue.
“All five people on board the plane, including the pilot, were killed,” police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP.
Officials said the helicopter lost contact about three minutes after take-off.
Nuwakot District Officer Ram Krishna Adhikari said five bodies have been recovered from the accident site.
“It crashed in a forest area on a hill slope. We don’t yet know the cause or how it happened,” he said from the crash site.
The official said police and army personnel were rushed to the spot after locals reported the accident and fire at the site.
Nepal’s air industry has grown rapidly in recent years, carrying goods and people between remote areas as well as foreign trekkers and mountaineers.
But it suffers from poor security due to inadequate training and maintenance, a problem compounded by Nepal’s difficult geography.
This Himalayan republic has one of the most rugged and difficult runways in the world, with snow-capped peaks on either side, making reaching there a challenging task even for skilled pilots.
The European Union has banned all Nepalese airlines from its airspace due to security concerns.
Wednesday’s incident comes two weeks after the plane crash in Kathmandu in which all 18 people except the pilot were killed.
Six people, including five members of a Mexican family, were killed when a helicopter crashed shortly after takeoff in the Everest region in 2023.
Nepal’s Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari was among seven people killed in a helicopter crash in 2019.
The last major accident involving a commercial flight in the country occurred in January 2023, when a Yeti Airlines plane crashed while landing in Pokhara, killing all 72 people on board.
It was the deadliest incident in Nepal since 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed near Kathmandu airport, killing all 167 people on board.
Earlier that year, a Thai Airways plane crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)