Manang Air helicopter with call sign 9N-AMV A (ASSO) met with a fatal accident near Lamjura in Solukhumbu district on Tuesday, leaving all six, including the pilot, on board dead. Their bodies were airlifted to the federal capital for the post-mortem at the TU Teaching Hospital. It is said that five passengers travelling in the ill-fated chopper were Mexican tourists of the same family, who include the husband, wife and their three children. They had boarded the helicopter on Monday for a mountain flight and to observe the Sherpa culture, but had to halt at Lukla airport due to the inclement weather. The ill-fated chopper had departed from the Surke-based helipad en route to Kathmandu at 10:05am. However, it lost communication with the Lukla Airport tower at 10:13am when it was flying at an altitude of 12,000 feet. The locals and police searching the helicopter found it in a difficult-to-reach terrain of Likhupike, approximately 3,500 metres above sea level. The deceased pilot has been identified as Captain CB Gurung.

Other passengers who lost their lives include Sifuentes G Fernando, Gonzalez Abric, Gonzalez Olacio Luz, Sifuentes G Maria Jose, and Rincon Ismael.

As many as 38 helicopters registered in Nepal have met with fatal accidents since the first chopper accident some 44 years ago. Four choppers have already met with accidents in 2023 alone.

Meanwhile, the government has formed an investigation committee underthe leadership of Budhisagar Lamichhane, Joint-Secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. A cabinet meeting held on Tuesday expressed grief over the tragic incident and paid heartfelt tributes to all the deceased.utes to all the deceased.

Although the probe panel will take time to uncover the exact cause of the chopper crash, pilots of other choppers, which were involved in the rescue operation, suspected that the chopper might have met with the accident after it entered the skies full of monsoon clouds. Even the rescue pilots had to negotiate with the foul weather while reaching the accident site at Lamjura from Kathmandu.

Most of the helicopters meet with accidents during the rainy season in the hilly areas, where the monsoon clouds cover the high mountains, making it very difficult to negotiate through them. As an experienced chopper pilot, Captain Gurung, who was familiar with the local terrain, must have waited till the weather condition improved for take-off. This fatal accident has sent a chill down the aviation industry in general and the tourism sector in particular, which had gradually started recovering from two years of COVID-19 pandemic. Many, including the European Union (EU), have raised questions over Nepal's air safety measures time and again. The EU has been imposing a ban on Nepal's airlines from flying into its skies due to its poor airworthiness since 2013. The EU has been asking the Nepal government to bifurcate the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal into a regulatory body and an air accident investigation body so that an air accident could be thoroughly investigated to enhance the country's air safety in the future. But a bill to this effect has been put on hold in the Federal Parliament for many years. Most air accidents can be avoided if the concerned pilots use their conscience before they take off.

Salary scale

It's good that the government has agreed to include the salary scale of school employees in the Federal Education Act. The agreement comes after a month of a relay hunger strike being staged by the employees of the community schools in Kathmandu for increased perks and benefits. It is really unfair that school employees like accountants and others should be paid very poor salaries - as low as Rs 8,000 - at a time when prices of commodities, including food, keep rising all the time. Teachers are not the only people working in a school, the input of other employees is just as important for the smooth running of educational institutions.

The new salary scale of the school employees, to be mentioned in the law itself, after the act is approved by the parliament, will, however, place an additional burden on the education budget. Nepal already spends a good chunk of its annual budget on education.

However, the investment made in the sector has not resulted in the desired outcome, largely due to politics in the schools and colleges. The political parties must come together to prevent schools and colleges from being a playground for achieving their vested interests.

A version of this article appears in the print on July 13, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.