On February 27, 2019,

Air Dynasty Air Dynasty Heli Service Pvt. Ltd. is a helicopter airline based at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, operating chartered helicopter services. The company was established in 1993 and mainly carries out domestic chartered heli ...

's Eurocopter AS350 B3e carrying six passengers and one pilot was scheduled to travel on a domestic chartered flight from

Pathibhara Devi Temple Pathibhara Devi (in Nepali: पाथिभरा देवी मन्दिर, in Limbu: Mukkumlung) is one of the most significant temples in Nepal, located on the hill of Taplejung. It is also considered one of the holy places for the Nep ...

Taplejung Taplejung District ( ne, ताप्लेजुङ जिल्ला ) is one of 77 districts of Nepal and one of the 14 districts of Province No. 1. It is remotely located in the Himalayas in Eastern Nepal with Tibet to the north across the ...

Chuhandanda Chuhandanda is a village development committee in the Himalayas of Terhathum District in Province No. 1 of eastern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census The 1991 Nepal census was a widespread national census conducted by the Nepal Centr ...

in Tehrathum, Nepal. The aircraft crashed at approximately 1.30 p.m. ( NPT) due to bad weather in Taplejung. All seven people on board died in the crash, including

Rabindra Prasad Adhikari Rabindra Prasad Adhikari ( Nepali: रबिन्द्र प्रसाद अधिकारी) (4 May 1969 – 27 February 2019) was a Nepali politician and three-time parliamentarian, belonging to the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). He was ...

, Nepal's Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Background

Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of Nepal

came to

to inspect the under-construction airport at

. After inspecting the airport, the fellow passengers and crew went to see one of the most significant temples in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

by helicopter. After visiting the temple Adhikari and other passengers were returning to

in Tehrathum.

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Eurocopter AS350 B3e bearing the registration ''9N-AMI''. It was built by

Airbus Helicopters Airbus Helicopters SAS (formerly Eurocopter Group) is the helicopter manufacturer, helicopter manufacturing division of Airbus. It is the largest in the industry in terms of revenues and turbine helicopter deliveries. Its head office is located ...

in 2017 and delivered to Air Dynasty brand new.

Passengers and crew

On board the helicopter were, among the minister Adhikari, Ang Tshering Sherpa, managing director of Yeti Airlines and Air Dynasty, an aide to Prime Minister

Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli ( ne, खड्गप्रसाद शर्मा ओली, ; born 22 February 1952) is a Nepalese politician and former Prime Minister of Nepal. He served three terms as prime minister from 11 October 2015 to 3 Augu ...

, two representatives of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, a security personnel and the captain of the aircraft.

Incident

The helicopter crash occurred due to critical weather in

. The crash killed all seven people on board, including Nepalese Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Rabindra Prasad Adhikari. The pilot of the helicopter reported heavy snowfall in the area of the

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

and stated that he was unable to remain airborne, according to '' The Kathmandu Post''. After the incident

was informed at 1:30 p.m.

Nepal Standard Time Nepal Standard Time (NPT) is the time zone for Nepal. With a time offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) of UTC+05:45 all over Nepal, it is one of only three time zones with a 45-minute offset from UTC.The others are Chatham Island Standa ...

(NPT). The helicopter crashed at Sisne Khola,

Pathibhara Pathibhara Devi (in Nepali: पाथिभरा देवी मन्दिर, in Limbu: Mukkumlung) is one of the most significant temples in Nepal, located on the hill of Taplejung. It is also considered one of the holy places for the Nep ...

, Taplejung, Nepal. Nepalese police reported that Rabindra Adhikari and another passenger were in an identifiable state. Moments after the helicopter went missing, Taplejung residents reported to the police that they had heard a loud bang and seen smoke and fire in the area. Suraj Bhattarai, a witness also reported to the police "The helicopter is in pieces, and scattered all over". The helicopter caught fire after hitting Chuchche Dada and falling down to Sisne Khola.

Aftermath

The Office of the Prime Minister declared 28 February 2019 to be national mourning day in Nepal to pay respect to those who died in the helicopter crash. Nepal's

Home Minister The Minister of Home Affairs (or simply, the Home Minister, short-form HM) is the head of the Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India. One of the senior-most officers in the Union Cabinet, the chief responsibility of the Home Minist ...

Ram Bahadur Thapa Ram Bahadur Thapa ( ne, राम बहादुर थापा), also widely known by his nom de guerre Badal, is a Nepali politician and former Minister for Home Affairs. He is the vice president of CPN (UML). Political life Before the ...

said "All educational institutes, government offices, diplomatic missions will remain closed with a national flag lowered half-mast to mourn the death." Thapa also said that "The national flag will be hoisted at half-staff to mourn the departed souls." The bodies of four people were brought to

Suketar Airport Taplejung Airport , also known as Suketar Airport, is a domestic airport located in Phungling serving Taplejung District, a district in Province No. 1 in Nepal. It is the main tourist gateway on the Kangchenjunga mountainous area and Pathibhar ...

on Wednesday afternoon.

Chief District Officer District administration makes up the third level of government division in Nepal. The provision for a District Assembly, which acts as the legislature at the district-level, is mentioned in Part 17 of the Constitution of Nepal. The 77 districts of ...

of Taplejung District Anuj Bhandari said "There has been heavy snowfall. We could not take out all the bodies. We will try again tomorrow", he also added that recovering bodies in the crash site is difficult due to helicopter crash site being at the slope of a hill. Nepal's prime minister

Khadga Prasad Oli Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli ( ne, खड्गप्रसाद शर्मा ओली, ; born 22 February 1952) is a Nepalese politician and former Prime Minister of Nepal. He served three terms as prime minister from 11 October 2015 to 3 Augu ...

and

Pushpa Kamal Dahal Pushpa Kamal Dahal ( ne, पुष्पकमल दाहाल; born 11 December 1954), also widely known by his nom de guerre Prachanda (, ; meaning "fierce"), is a Nepalese politician serving as the current Prime Minister of Nepal. He pre ...

told the media "The country has lost a dependable youth leader with abundant possibilities in the demise of Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari". Mourning the loss of their managing director, Yeti Airlines, and

Tara Air Tara Air Pvt. Ltd. is an airline headquartered in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines. Tara Air was formed in 2009 using aircraft from the Yeti Airlines fleet and is based at Tribhuvan International Airport, with a secondary h ...

cancelled all flights on 1 March 2019. The bodies of the passengers and the pilot were brought to

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

on February 28 at 12:10 p.m. Nepal Communist Party (NCP) said all of the bodies would be cremated with state honours at Ramghat in

. Before the funeral Adhikari's body would be kept at Exhibition Centre at local Nayabazar to pay respect toward him and his body would be cremated at

Pokhara Pokhara ( ne, पोखरा, ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. It is the List of cities in Nepal, second most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, with 518,452 inhabitants living ...

Investigation

On 28 February, the

Government of Nepal The Government of Nepal ( ne, नेपाल सरकार) is the federal executive authority of Nepal. Prior to the abolition of the Nepali monarchy in 2006 (became republic in 2008), it was officially known as His Majesty's Government. T ...

opened an investigation into the accident. Four months after the accident, the investigation committee released a preliminary report which blamed violations of operating procedures, such as a misbalance of weights and an inexperienced pilot, and the weather conditions for causing the crash.

References

External links

2019 Taplejung helicopter crash
on Aviation Safety Network {{DEFAULTSORT:Taplejung helicopter crash, 2019 2019 in Nepal February 2019 events in Asia Aviation accidents and incidents in Nepal Aviation accidents and incidents in 2019 Accidents and incidents involving the Eurocopter AS350 Taplejung District 2019 disasters in Nepal