Nepal army spots wreckage of missing US helicopter

The helicopter was among the relief teams that have been working to help Nepalese after a 7.8-magnitude quake.

Nepalese soldiers, carrying earthquake relief aid, board a helicopter at Charikot in Dolkha district
Relief teams from have been working for weeks to provide water, food, shelter and medical assistance for Nepalese [Reuters]

The Nepalese army has said a rescue helicopter has spotted the wreckage of a missing US Marine chopper in the mountains northeast of Kathmandu.

Army chief of army operations Major-General Binoj Basnet said on Friday no signs of life could be seen from the air, but could not give any information about the six Marines and two Nepalese army soldiers who were on board when the helicopter went missing on Tuesday.

The helicopter was among the relief teams from around the world that have been working for weeks to provide water, food, shelter and medical assistance to Nepal after a 7.8-magnitude quake hit the country on April 25 quake, killing thousands.

Basnet said the helicopter had been spotted from the air in a remote forest around 70km northeast of Kathmandu.

“We don’t know if there are any survivors, we have yet to confirm that,” Basnet told the AFP news agency by telephone.

“We have sighted the wreckage from the air, we are now trying to land in the area and get more information.”

He also said ground troops were being sent to survey the wreckage on the mountainous terrain.

Many areas in that region of Nepal are not reachable by air or road.

Before it went missing, there was “some chatter about a fuel problem” on the radio from the helicopter crew, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said on Tuesday.

Army helicopters and hundreds of US and Nepalese ground troops had been deployed to scour the mountainous terrain where it disappeared on the same day a 7.3-magnitude second earthquake hit Nepal.

Source: News Agencies