Officials deciding what to do with bodies of Everest crash victims
Kathmandu, Jul 12 (EFE).- The consulate of Mexico in Nepal on Wednesday said they were waiting for a response from its Embassy in New Delhi, India, on whether to repatriate the bodies of the five Mexican tourists killed in a recent helicopter crash or cremate them in Kathmandu.
“The postmortem is ongoing. We have been waiting for the response from the Mexican embassy in Delhi,” Chiranjivi Bhattarai, personal secretary to the Honorary Consul of Mexico to Nepal, Naresh Dugar, told EFE.
“We have two options – either to cremate the bodies in Kathmandu or repatriate them to Mexico,” he underlined.
Six people, including five Mexican nationals, died in a helicopter crash near Mount Everest in Nepal on Tuesday.
The five passengers killed in the crash – all of them Mexican nationals – were identified as Fernando Sifuentes, Abril Sifuentes Gonzalez, Luz Gonzalez Olacio, Maria Jose Sifuentes and Ismael Rincon.
Mexico’s Ambassador to India, Federico Salas, told the news outlet Infobae that the victims were family members originally from Nuevo León.
The Mexican Embassy in India said on Twitter that its officials were “in continual communication with the authorities of Nepal regarding the tragic helicopter accident.”
The family were in Nepal for a sightseeing tour of Everest for which they had chartered the helicopter. After completing the sightseeing, the chopper crashed while returning to Kathmandu.
Preliminary reports indicate bad weather was the reason behind the crash. The government has constituted a committee to probe the crash.
The Manang Air helicopter with registration number 9N-AMV took off from Surke Airport in Solukhumbu district at 10:04 am for Kathmandu on Tuesday and suddenly lost contact at 10:13 am.
The helicopter crashed in the Lamjura area of Likhupike Rural Municipality in the remote mountainous Solukhumbu district. EFE
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