Families likely to receive remains of crash victims today

Kathmandu, August 9

Kalawati Tamang, mother of deceased staff nurse Nisha Tamang, and her two brothers Nirmal and Nitesh waited for the whole day at TU Teaching Hospital today to receive Nisha’s body, who was killed in the Fishtail Air chopper crash on Monday.

Similarly, deceased captain Ranjan Limbu and others’ kin were also eager to receive the bodies for cremation and final rites.

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However, the hospital informed them in the evening that post mortem had been delayed due to difficulty in identifying the victims’ body parts as they were mangled and burnt beyond recognition.

“We waited for the whole day but the hospital informed that post mortem would be carried out tomorrow after identification of the bodies,” said Tamang’s close neighbour Roning Rai.

Hospital sources said only a part of captain Limbu’s hand had been identified. According to the hospital, the bodies would be handed over to the victims’ families tomorrow.

All seven people, including a new-born, on board a Fishtail Air chopper that crashed at Bhetini in Nuwakot district on Monday were killed. The wreckage of the crashed chopper was found at a cliff in Bhetini of Madanpur-9, Nuwakot.

Kitman Gurung, 60, from Philim of Sirdiwas 2, his 56-year-old wife Agyani, their 19-year-old daughter-in-law Priti and Priti’s newborn child were on board the chopper. Two other passengers were local Laxmi Gurung and a health worker Nisha Tamang.

Tamang was a permanent resident of Itahari in Sunsari district and was deployed to the Gorkha village by a non-government organisation called PHASE Nepal.

The helicopter was bringing a five-day-old baby for check up in Kathmandu.