At least five people have been killed after a helicopter carrying foreign tourists crashed near Mount Everest in Nepal.
The aircraft was carrying five foreign tourists on a sightseeing tour to the world’s highest peak and was returning to the capital, Kathmandu, on Tuesday morning.
The helicopter crashed in the Lamajura area and rescuers have recovered the bodies of five people and are searching for the sixth, said Basanta Bhattarai, the chief government administrator in the area.
The tourists were believed to be Mexican nationals while the pilot was Nepalese.
Airport official Sagar Kadel said weather conditions had caused changes to be made to the helicopter’s flight route.
It is common for flights to be delayed and routes changed during the monsoon season amid heavy rains.
The tourist and mountaineering season ended in May with the onset of the rainy season and tourist flights to the mountains are not common at this time of year as visibility gets poor and weather conditions become unpredictable.
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