KATHMANDU, May 28: Government has formed a commission to investigate into the causes behind the Summit Air aircraft crash at Tenjing Hilary Airport in Lukla, Solukhumbu.

Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on Sunday formed the five-member commission led by Triratna Manandhar, former director general of Nepal Civil Aviation Authority.

According to Ghanashyam Upadhyaya, the spokesperson at the Ministry, the commission includes Captain Aashish Nar Singh Rana, colonel of Nepal Army, Tara Air's Senior Captain Bodhraj Niraula, Manang Air's Senior Engineer Digambar Rajbhandari as the members of the commission while Joint Secretary at the ministry, Suresh Acharya is assigned as member secretary of the commission.  

Captain Paras Kumar Rai and Co-pilot Srijan Manandhar of the ill-fated aircraft belonging to Summit Air (previously known as Goma Air) had died on Saturday as the plane crashed at Tenzing Hillary Airport.

Meanwhile, Airhostess Prgya Maharjan is airlifted to Kathmandu on Sunday morning for further treatment at Grande Hospital.

Rai, Manandhar and Maharjan were rescued alive after the crash but Rai succumbed to injuries soon after. Though attempts were made to airlift the co-pilot and airhostess to Kathmandu for further treatment on Saturday, all the attempts failed because of bad weather conditions.  Co-pilot Manandhar succumbed to injuries on Saturday night.

The cargo aircraft with a call sign 9N-AK LY had crashed shortly before landing at the airport at around 2 pm on Saturday afternoon.

The incident took place after the plane struck against a pine tree just before touching down to the runway. According to the preliminary investigation, the incident took place due to bad weather.

 
• government
 
• lukla air crash
 
• summit air
 
• tenjing hilary airport
 
• commission