At least six people, including five Mexicans, died in a helicopter crash on Tuesday, officials in Nepal said, opening an investigation and recovering the bodies.
The civil aviation regulator said the cause of the crash near Likku, just northeast of the capital Kathmandu, was still unknown, but the government would set up a committee to investigate the crash.
The helicopter was operated by Manang Air, which takes tourists to see the country’s highest peaks, including Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, according to Reuters.
The rescuers recovered the bodies of six people, said Sita Adhikari, regional officer of Solukhumbu district where the accident took place.
“The bodies were dismembered,” Adhikari added. “More police have been sent to the spot. Details will be known only then.”
Teknath Sitaula, an airport official, said a Nepalese pilot and five Mexican nationals were on board the plane.
“The helicopter took off… in good weather,” Manang Air spokesman Raju Neupane said. “The weather was not bad. Now we cannot say what caused the crash. We have to investigate.”
The remote mountain nation has a history of plane crashes, as many airlines fly into small airports in remote mountains and close to cloud-covered peaks and isolated from roads.
In January, 71 people were killed in Nepal’s worst plane crash in 30 years, when a plane crashed near the tourist town of Pokhara, leaving one body unaccounted for.
