Mexican family killed in chopper crash visited India

July 12, 2023 11:06

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The five Mexican nationals killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Nepal near Mount Everest on Tuesday visited India before touring the Himalayan nation for sightseeing.

The Manang Air helicopter 9N-AMV took off from Surke Airport in Solukhumbu district at 10:04 am for Kathmandu on Tuesday and suddenly lost contact at an altitude above 12,000 feet at 10:13 am.

The helicopter crashed in the Lamjura area of Likhupike Rural Municipality in the remote mountainous Solukhumbu district.

The deceased pilot has been identified as Captain CB Gurung, a Nepali national. The five passengers killed in the crash all of them Mexican nationals were identified as Fernando Sifuentes (95), Abril Sifuentes Gonzalez (72), Luz Gonzalez Olacio (65), Maria Jose Sifuentes (52) and Ismael Rincon (98).

The family also visited India as one of the victims, Abril Sifuentes Gonzalez, on July 5 posted a photo of herself on a social media platform in front of the Taj Mahal days before the accident.

Mexico's Ambassador to India Federico Salas said that the victims were family members originally from Nuevo Leon, according to Mexican News Daily.

"It was a family of five people, in effect, who were tourists. They went to Nepal. (...) They were a father and mother and three children. (...) The parents and children were adults, they were not little ones," Salas was quoted as saying by the Infobae Mexico.

Meanwhile, the bodies have been airlifted to Kathmandu and are kept at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital for post-mortem, Gyanendra Bhul, Information Officer at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), The Himalayan Times newspaper was quoted as saying.

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