GORKHABAZAR, June 22: The reason of today's Simrik Air's helicopter crash has been unveiled. It has been learnt that the helicopter pilot’s failure to track down the actual destination caused the chopper land at a wrong spot, a sloppy place, and in the overturn of it, lead to the crash.
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It later caught fire, however, allowing some time for the passengers to run to safety.
The chopper, with the call sign 9N AKF, caught fire in its rear while all the passengers and the pilot got off in a slope on Samdo village, according to one of the lucky-survivors, Acharya.
"The helicopter bound to land at Samagaun was landed at Samdo, in a slope," recalled Acharya, who is also the Chief of Division of Drinking Water and Sanitation in Gorkha district."The helicopter after landing in the slope again attempted to fly. It started overturning, losing its control," he added.
According to him, first of all, the wings of the chopper broke and a fume of smoke was seen coming out of the helicopter's rear. "Thank God, we could run to safety as the Captain could open the door within no time," said Acharya after making a narrow escape.
Besides Acharya, the survivors are Amal Tuladhar, Bishwa Shrestha and Suravraj Chettri and the pilot Surendra Poudel. They had boarded the helicopter which had flown from Kathmandu today itself.
"The helicopter was seen in flames for almost an hour, there was no way we could douse the fire," said Acharya.
The survivors have been rescued to Kathmandu, except for Acharya who was dropped at Namjildanda in Gorkha district.
Samagaun VDC, a remote VDC in Gorkha, is located some three walking hours distance from Samdo village. RSS
