On 23 September 2006, a Shree Air Mil Mi-8 helicopter crashed on a chartered flight from

Phungling Phungling Municipality (previously also ''Taplejung Municipality'') is a List of cities in Nepal, municipality located in Taplejung District in the Koshi Province of Nepal. The municipality was formed merging the then two Village development comm ...

Ghunsa Ghunsa () is a village of Taplejung, Nepal at elevation of 3,475 m and is a major check point for Mt. Kangchenjunga. This village came into attention after the helicopter accident that killed 24 passengers including most prominent figures in conser ...

in Eastern Nepal. The accident killed all 24 passengers and crew on board, including an expedition of

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

, in the process of the creation of the indigenously owned and managed Kangchenjunga Conservation Area.

Aircraft

The helicopter involved with the accident was a Mil Mi-8 MTV 1.

Crew and victims

On board the helicopter was an expedition of

returning from an conservation event in

Taplejung District Taplejung District ( ) is one of seventy-seven districts of Nepal and one of the 14 districts of Koshi Province. It is located deep in the Himalayas in Eastern Nepal with བོད to the north across the Himalayas. Taplejung is the third lar ...

, where the

Government of Nepal The Government of Nepal () is the central executive authority of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. The government is led by the Prime Minister of Nepal, prime minister (K. P. Sharma Oli, K.P. Oli since 15 July 2024) who selects all the o ...

handed the management of the park around

Kanchenjunga Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at in a section of the Himalayas, the ''Kangchenjunga Himal'', which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and ...

to the local people. The WWF team included

Chandra Gurung Chandra Gurung (died 23 September 2006), also Chandra Prasad Gurung, was a leader in conservation and sustainable field of Nepal. His major notable works include to make success of the Annapurna Conservation Area Project. Early life He was born i ...

and

Harka Gurung } Dr. Harka Bahadur Gurung (1939–2006) was a Nepali geographer, author, and politician, known for his conservation work. Early life Gurung was born in Lamjung on 5 February 1939, in the village of Taranche. His father was a non-commissioned of ...

. Other passengers on board the ill-fated helicopter included politician Gopal Rai.

Casualties

Source: * Dr. Bigyan Acharya, Program Development Specialist

USAID The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an agency of the United States government that has been responsible for administering civilian United States foreign aid, foreign aid and development assistance. Established in 19 ...

, Nepal * Margaret Alexander, Deputy Director, USAID, Nepal * Hem Raj Bhandari, Reporter,

Nepal Television Nepal Television (), shortened to NTV is the Nepali national Public broadcasting, public state-controlled television broadcaster. It's accessible in four languages. It is the oldest and most watched television channel in Nepal. The news broadcas ...

* Dr. Chandra Prasad Gurung, Country Representative, WWF Nepal * Dr. Harka Gurung, Advisor, WWF Nepal * Jennifer Headley, Coordinator, Himalaya/South Asia Program * Klim Kim, Flight Crew * Yeshi Choden Lama, Senior Program Officer, WWF Nepal * Tirtha Man Maskey, Former Director General, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation * Pauli Mustonen, Charge d'Affaires, Embassy of Finland, Nepal * Dr. Damodar Parajuli, Acting Secretary, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation * Matthew Preece, Program Officer, Eastern Himalayas Program, WWF US (Recently hired by USAID) * Narayan Poudel, Director General, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation * The Honorable Gopal Rai Minister of State, Ministry of Forests and Soil Conservation, and his wife, Meena Rai * Sharad Rai, Director General, Department of Forests * Dr. Jillian Bowling Schlaepfer, Director of Conservation, WWF UK * Mingma Sherpa, Flight Crew * Mingma Norbu Sherpa, Managing Director, Eastern Himalayas Program, WWF US * Vijaya Shrestha, Central Committee Member, Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry * Sunil Singh, Cameraman, Nepal Television * Valery Slafronov, Flight Crew * Guruwar Tandul, Flight Crew * Dr. Dawa Tshering, Chairperson, Kangchenjunga Conservation Area Management Council

Incident

The helicopter took off at 10:45 NPT on 23 September 2006. Shortly afterwards, the helicopter was declared missing. Two days later, the wreckage of the helicopter was found south-west of

. Bad weather was assumed to have caused the crash at the beginning.

Investigation

The final report on the accident the committee of the

Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN, ) is an independent civil aviation regulator. It was established as a Nepali government body in 1998 and is headquartered in Kathmandu. Before its formation, the functions of the CAAN had been perform ...

stated that the pilots entering cloudy areas in unfamiliar terrain as well as bad crew resource management were the main causes of the accident. It furthermore criticized the operating airline, Shree Air, on their training proceedings.

Aftermath

A day of mourning was observed throughout Nepal and schools and public offices were closed on 27 September 2006.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shree Air Mil Mi-8 Crash, 2006 Aviation accidents and incidents in 2006 Aviation accidents and incidents in Nepal Aviation accidents and incidents caused by pilot error 2006 in Nepal Accidents and incidents involving the Mil Mi-8 2006 disasters in Nepal September 2006 in Asia