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4 Americans among 14 killed in plane crash in Nepal

24 August 2010 20:47 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Heavy rain and thick cloud cover caused the crash of the 15-seat aircraft, officials say. The plane was headed to a popular hiking area, APA reports quoting Los Angeles Times.
Four Americans, a Japanese and a Briton were among 14 killed Tuesday when a small plane crashed in Nepal in bad weather, officials reported.

The 15-seat Dornier 228 twin turboprop operated by Agni Air was headed for the town of Lukla, a popular spot for hikers, around 7:15 a.m. when it was advised by air traffic control to turn back due to thick cloud cover, according to Bishnu Dulal, the airlineâ€™s reservations manager. The flight to the 9,200-foot elevation town normally takes about 25 minutes.

By the time it approached Katmandu, however, the capital also was socked in, so the pilot headed for Simra airport. Before the plane reached there, however, it crashed near Shikharpur village, about 50 miles south of Katmandu.
Tri Ratna Manandhar, of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, said all 11 passengers and three crew members aboard were killed, eight of whom were Nepalese.

"It has been raining very heavily for some days," Dulal said. "Weather was the reason for the crash."

Agni Air identified the Americans, all tourists, as Irina Shekhets, 30; Levzi Cordoso, 49; Heather Finch, 40; and Kendra Fallon, 18. The Japanese passenger was Yuki Hayashe, 19, and the Briton was Jeremy Taylor, 30.

The Times of India reported that another Western tourist, who only gave her name as E. Wols, was scheduled to board the 7:04 a.m. flight but missed it. .

The rescue coordination office at Katmanduâ€™s Tribhuvan International Airport said in a statement that soldiers reached the crash site on foot and were retrieving the bodies but that rescue helicopters had not been able to reach the area due to low visibility and continued rain.

A villager who witnessed the accident, Ram Bahadur Gole, told the Avenues Television news channel that the plane broke into several pieces on impact, which were scattered on a hillside.

Agni Air officials said helicopters were only able to land a mile or two away and that the battered condition of the bodies made early identification difficult.

A statement by the U.S. Embassy in Katmandu offered condolences to the victimsâ€™ families and said relatives of the American victims had been notified.

Nepal has a history of aviation safety concerns, said Kapil Kaul, New Delhi-based chief executive with the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, and many of the passengers probably thought little about the hazards. "Tourists, especially backpackers, tend to take safety for granted," he said. "And in Nepal, theyâ€™re mostly backpackers."

Some 270 Dornier 228 aircraft have been built in Germany and India since 1981, of which about 120 remain in service. The U.S.-based Aviation Safety Network said on its website that 29 had been lost in various accidents resulting in a total of 122 fatalities.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said it was assembling a five-member committee to investigate the crash and submit its report within 65 days. In a 2009 audit, the International Civil Aviation Organization rated Nepal below global average in all critical categories of safety oversight.