At least five people died after a helicopter carrying foreign tourists crashed near Mount Everest in Nepal on Tuesday, and another person on the plane remained missing.
The helicopter crashed in the Lamajura area and rescuers recovered the bodies of five people and were searching for a sixth, said Basanta Bhattarai, the top government administrator in the area.
The plane was returning to the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday morning after taking the five tourists on a sightseeing trip to the world’s highest peak.
The tourists were believed to be Mexican citizens, while the pilot was Nepali.
Airport official Sagar Kadel said weather conditions had caused changes to the helicopter’s planned flight path.
It is common for flights to be delayed and routes to change during the monsoon season amid heavy rain.
The tourist and mountaineering season ended in May with the start of the rainy season, and tourist flights to the mountains are less common at this time of year, as visibility is poor and weather conditions become unpredictable.
