7 including pilot, newborn die in Nuwakot chopper crash

A helicopter belonging to Fishtail Air crashed at Betini, Belkot VDC-8 of Nuwakot district on Monday, killing all seven on board, including the pilot and a new-born baby.The ill-fated chopper, call sign 9N AKA, was bound for Kathmandu from Sirdibas VDC in Gorkha district, carrying a 19-year-old woman facing medical complications after childbirth, and her five-day-old baby.The woman’s father-in-law Kitman Gurung, 65 and his wife Agyani Gurung, 56 were also in the chopper.Similarly, Laxmi Gurung of the same village and health worker Nisha Tamanag of Itahari, Sunsari district, who were accompanying the sick party, perished in the incident.Two teams of security personnel – one from District Police Office, Nuwakot and the other from the Armed Police Force Training Center at Kakani – have been deployed to the incident site. “Priti was very sick even prior to her delivery. She had high fever and a terrible cough and cold. After giving birth, there was bleeding which didn’t stop,” said Sujan Gurung, a relative.”We took her to a local health post where she stayed for three days. As there was no sign of improvement, we decided to charter a helicopter and take her to Kathmandu,” he added.