NEPAL: Rescuers retrieve bodies of Nepal crash victims

Rescue teams in the mountainous terrain of eastern Nepal on Wednesday (September 27) recovered the remains of 24 people killed in the crash of a helicopter chartered by conservation group WWF, officials said. The wreckage of the Russian-built aircraft was found on Monday near a remote village in the Taplejung district -- about 300 km (190 miles) east of the Himalayan nation's capital, Kathmandu -- following a two-day, rain-hampered search. "The first two days, the site was very much inaccessible, it's only today the weather has improved," said Nuwang Nima Sherpa of Nepal Mountaineering Association Rescue Team. Officials said they suspected the helicopter, which was carrying 20 passengers and four crew members, may have slammed into the hills, broken into pieces and burst into flames. There were no survivors. "It's been very difficult. That's the same with every rescue work. We've been practising for five years. Actually looking at the terrain of that place it was very difficult to reach it. That's why we took all the necessary equipment for this rescue," said Nuwang Nima Sherpa. The aircraft was carrying 17 Nepalis, two Russians, a Finnish diplomat, two Americans, a Canadian and a Swiss-Australian. Nepal's junior forest minister, Gopal Rai, his wife, Finnish Charge d'Affaires Pauli Mustonen and the deputy director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nepal, Margaret Alexander, were among those on board. Other passengers were conservationists working for the WWF and two Nepali television journalists. They were on their way back after attending the handover of a WWF project to the local community. tb/jrc

ITN Source | September 27, 2006

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