Three killed in Himalayan plane crash – Nepal

by Deepak Adhikari – PHOTO: AAP

Three people have been killed and three injured after a Simrik Air place crashed into a helicopter while taking off from the Lukla airstrip near Mount Everest in north-eastern Nepal, near the border of China.

The small plane was taking off this morning (Nepali time) from Tenzing-Hillary Airport, the gateway to Everest, when it hit a parked Manang Air helicopter.

“The co-pilot and a policeman died at the crash site. Another police officer died in a hospital in Kathmandu. The plane’s pilot, the helicopter’s pilot and a Manang Air worker are among others injured. Four passengers on board the plane were unhurt,” according to a police spokesman Uttam Raj Subedi

The injured have been flown to the Nepalese capital Kathmandu for medical treatment. All the dead and wounded are Nepalese.

Hundreds of foreign climbers head to the mountain region each April to climb Mount Everest during the commercial expedition season, which lasts until May.

Last month, seven people, including the country’s tourism minister were killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Nepal.