Bodies of pilot, co-pilot handed over to kin
Kathmandu, May 28
The bodies of pilot Paras Kumar Rai and co-pilot Srijan Manandhar of Goma Air cargo plane, which crashed in Lukla yesterday killing the two, were handed over to their kin today.
The bodies along with injured air hostess Pragya Maharjan, were flown from Lukla to Kathmandu by Air Dynasty helicopter this morning. The bodies were handed over their families after post-mortem at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.
Injured Maharjan was sent to Grande Hospital for treatment.
According to Tribhuvan International Airport, the bodies could not be airlifted yesterday due to bad weather conditions. “We succeeded in airlifting the bodies and the injured air hostess to Kathmandu today,” said TIA Spokesperson Prem Nath Thakur.
He said a five-member technical team comprising a senior pilot and officials of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, among others, flew to Lukla this morning to investigate the crash. “The technical team will observe wreckage and other field evidences, which may help to establish the cause of the accident,” added Thakur. Though the accident took place on Saturday afternoon, bad weather made it difficult to airlift the bodies and injured to Kathmandu.
Senior captain Rai, 48, died on the spot while critically injured co-pilot Srijan Manandhar succumbed to injuries nearly eight hours after the Goma Air aircraft belonging to Summit Air crashed while landing in foggy weather at Lukla Airport yesterday afternoon. The cargo plane with three crew members crashed while landing at Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla at 2:05pm, according to Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.
After being rescued from the incident site, co-pilot Manadhar had been rushed to Nicole Niquille Hospital where doctors wanted him to be airlifted to Kathmandu for further treatment.
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