24 people including Minister Killed in helicopter crash

Kathmandu, Sep 25 (UNI) All the 24 persons including a cabinet minister, were killed in Helicopter crash in Eastern Nepal, reports said.

The wreckage of the helicopter which was missing since Saturday afternoon was found about two kms south-west of Southern Ghunsa in Taplejung district today.

''The Chopper was totally destroyed and the bodies were burnt beyond recognition", an official at the Tribhuvan International Airport told UNI.

State Minister for Forests and Soil Conservation Gopal Rai, Finnish charge d'affaires Pauli Mustonen, Secretary of the Ministry, Damodar Prasad Parajuli, Director General at the Department of Forest and Wildlife Conservation Dr Tirtha Man Maskey, WWF country representative Dr Chandra Gurung were among the 24 people who were on the ill-fated heicopter.

Minister Rai and the officials from the WWF were returning to Kathmandu after attending a function to mark the hand over of the Kanchanjunga Conservation Area to the local community on Saturday.

Locals said they heard a loud crash in the jungle five minutes after the helicopter took off from Ghunsa, a remoteregion in Nepal.

A local from Lelep said over telephone ''The helicopter vanished from the sky suddenly and nobody could see what happened next.'' Officials of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said they had lost contact with the helicopter seven minutes after take off from Ghunsa, Kanchanjungha, at noon.

UNI XC DKB GC1604