Kathmandu: Four Chinese tourists and a Nepali pilot were killed on Wednesday when a helicopter crashed in the mountains northwest region of Kathmandu.
The crash took place in the border area between Kathmandu and Nuwakot districts.
A Nuwakot district police official said all five persons, including the pilot, on board the helicopter belonging to private airline, Air Dynasty, were killed in the crash.
The 9N-AJD helicopter crashed at the Shivapuri National Park area in Nuwakot district, some 30 km North-West of Kathmandu at around 2 pm local time, he said.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the helicopter was heading towards Rasuwa's Syafrubesi area from Kathmandu with four Chinese passengers.
The chopper took off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 1.54 pm and lost contact with the tower just three minutes after take off, the CAAN said in a press release.
The chopper was piloted by captain Arun Malla. There were three male and one female Chinese nationals in the chopper.
The dead bodies were taken to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital at Maharajgunj in Kathmandu for postmortem, the airline's officials said.
The crash comes just two weeks after a Saurya Airlines plane crashed at the Tribhuvan International Airport on July 24. The crash claimed the lives of 18 people on board, with the captain being the sole survivor.
The latest incident raises serious concerns about air safety over the skies of the Himalayan nation, which has witnessed numerous air crashes in recent years.
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