No info on missing helicopter with 24 on board

Kathmandu, Sep 24 (UNI) Bad weather and nightfall forced the suspension of all aerial search operations eraly today for the private helicopter carrying 20 passengers and four crew members, which went missing in eastern Nepal.

Altogether 24 people, including the crewmembers, were returning after taking part in a ceremony organised to mark handing over of Kanchanjunga Conservation Area to the local community in Taplejung on Friday. They were returning to the district headquarters of Taplejung from remote Ghunsa area of the same district yesterday.

Officials of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said they had lost contact with the helicopter, Shree Airlines 9N-AHJ (MI-172), after seven minutes taking off from Ghunsa, Kanchanjungha, at noon yesterday.

Two helicopters of the Nepal Army had been dispatched to search for the missing copter but bad weather and nightfall forced the suspension of all aerial search operations, reports said.

Security personnel have been mobilised to search the missing chopper.

''Locals heard a loud noise in the jungle five minutes after the helicopter took off from Ghunsa. The region is very remote. The helicopter vanished from the sky suddenly and nobody could see what happened next,'' a radio channel said.

According to reports, the passengers included Minister of State for Forest and Soil Conservation Gopal Rai and his wife, charge d' affaires in Embassy of Finland Pauli Mustonen, Forest secretary Damodar Prasad Parajuli, director general of the Department of Forest Sharad Rai, director general of DNPWC Narayan Poudel and Margaret Alexander of USAID, managing director of EHBC, World Wildlife Fund (WWF-U) Mingma N Sherpa, former minister Harka Gurung, conservation director of WWF-UK Jill Bowling, and co-chairman of ASRSG, WWF Nepal Tirtha Man Maskey and country representative WWF Nepal Chandra P Gurung.

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