A Fishtail Air helicopter crashed in Nuwakot district on Monday, killing all seven people on board.
The helicopter (9NAKL) was on its way back to Kathmandu from Gorkha, where it had flown to airlift a woman suffering from complications after delivering her baby.
Contact with the helicopter was lost while it was flying over a forested mountain in Nuwakot district. Authorities in Nuwakot first confirmed the crash, after speaking with some villagers who claimed to have seen smoke rising up from Betini, a dense jungle where the chopper had gone missing. Police later spotted the wreckage, and collected the charred body parts.
According to Fishtail Air, the ill-fated helicopter was flown by Captain Ranjan Limbu, and six persons — the woman, her in-laws and her newborn baby — were on board. Their bodies were later brought in to Kathmandu.
This is the fourth Fishtail Air helicopter crash in the last six years.
After last year's earthquake, a Fishtail Air Ecureuil 350 helicopter supplying relief and reconstruction materials to earthquake-devastated villages crashed in Langtang, but no casualties were reported.
In June 2013, a Fishtail Air helicopter returning after transporting a rescue team to a landslide-struck area in Humla had crashed, killing one and injuring five others including the Italian pilot and Fishtail Air's manager.
In 2010, another helicopter on a rescue mission in Ama Dablam crashed into the mountain, killing the pilot and the technician.