5 people killed in a helicopter crash in the mountains northwest of Nepal’s capital

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — All five people on board a helicopter were killed when it crashed Wednesday in the mountains just northwest of Nepal’s capital, authorities said.

The bodies of four men and a woman were pulled from the wreckage, said Krishna Prasad Humagai, the government administrator of Nuwakot district.

Police and army rescuers reached the area and two rescue helicopters were also sent to assist in the operation, the official said.

The crash site is in the Suryachaur area, which is just northwest of Kathmandu, and is on a mountain covered by forest.

The helicopter had taken off from Kathmandu international airport at 1:54 p.m. local time and was heading towards the town of Syaprubeshi.

The helicopter, an Eurocopter AS350 belonging to Nepal-based Air Dynasty, had lost contact with the tower just three minutes after takeoff, according to a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

The four passengers are Chinese nationals, and the pilot is a Nepali man, officials said.

The crash came two weeks after a passenger plane crashed just after taking off from the Kathmandu airport, killing 18 people and injuring a pilot, who was the lone survivor.

All the people onboard the Saurya Airlines flight, including the co-pilot, were Nepali except for one passenger, who was a Yemeni national.

A government investigation has been ordered into the crash of the Bombardier CRJ 200 plane, which was heading to Nepal’s second-most populous city of Pokhara for maintenance work. Most of the passengers aboard were either mechanics or airline employees, airport officials said.

The pilot has injuries to his eyes has returned home from a hospital.