The wreckage of a US Marine Corps helicopter that went missing in Nepal on Tuesday has been found with six bodies in mountains north-east of Kathmandu.
The helicopter, carrying six US and two Nepali armed forces members, was delivering aid in Dolakha district when contact was lost at about 3pm after a 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal.
A Nepalese army official, Major Janak Silwal, said that six bodies have been spotted so far. “A small helicopter has landed in the area and is doing investigations now and has spotted six bodies.”
The discovery of the site followed days of intense search involving US and Nepalese aircraft and US satellites.
A Nepalese home ministry spokesman, Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, said the crash site was at 11,200ft height in Kalinchow.
A US recovery team arrived at the crash site but had to leave because of bad weather.
Nepal’s army, struggling with the aftermath of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit on 25 April, had deployed about 400 troops into rocky, forested terrain after the US helicopter was reported missing.
At least 117 people died in Tuesday’s earthquake, bringing the total since 25 April to 8,316. Another 20,000 people are injured and hundreds unaccounted for.
“Every village is hard-hit by the earthquake,” said Prem Lal Lamichhane, a senior official in Dolakha district. “We are getting reports that dozens of people are still buried as there have been several landslides, and [we] haven’t got information from some of the villages too.”
