Helicopter carrying tourists crashes near Mount Everest, killing 6

Aircraft was returning to Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, after sightseeing trip to world’s tallest peak.

Six people, including five Mexican nationals, died in a helicopter crash in Nepal on Tuesday, a government official said, the latest in a series of tragic air crashes in the Himalayan nation.

The helicopter, operated by Manang Air, crashed near Likkhu earlier on Tuesday, just to the north of Kathmandu. Manang Air is one of many operations ferrying tourists to Nepal’s high mountain peaks, including Mount Everest.

Rescuers have located five bodies and are looking for a sixth, said Teknath Sitoula, a Kathmandu airport official.

Five Mexican nationals and a Nepali pilot were on board when the helicopter went down, Sitoula said.

The cause of the crash was not yet known, the civil aviation regulator said, adding that the government would set up a probe committee to investigate.

The Himalayan nation, where many airlines fly to small airports in remote hills and mountains shrouded in clouds and cut off from roads, has a history of air crashes.

In January this year, 71 people were killed in Nepal’s worst air crash in 30 years, when a plane crashed near the tourist city of Pokhara.