All five people on board an Air Dynasty helicopter were killed when it crashed on a hillside located some 11 kilometres northwest of Kathmandu on Wednesday. The accident comes just two weeks after the Saurya Airlines crash in Kathmandu that killed 18 people.

This is the fifth helicopter crash in Nepal in two years. At least 41 crashes involving helicopters have been recorded across the country since 1979, including 20 fatal ones.

On Wednesday, the air traffic controller gave a go-ahead for a 9N-AJD chopper belonging to Air Dynasty to fly from Kathmandu to Syaprubesi, Rasuwa, on the country’s northern border, with four Chinese nationals on board.

An on-duty air traffic controller said the chopper lost contact with the Kathmandu tower two minutes after takeoff at 1:54 pm. “The weather was perfect. There was sunshine and no haze at Kathmandu’s airport.”

“We were informed about two trips.”

Bal Krishna Pandit, safety manager of Air Dynasty, said the flight was scheduled to take four Chinese nationals to the north, from where they would cross the border to their country.

“On the return flight, the chopper would bring from Syapru five Americans who had reached there after the Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage tour in Tibet.”

“We don’t know the exact reason behind the crash, but an initial report shows a weather problem in the Shivapuri hills, even though it was clear in Kathmandu,” said Pandit.

The chopper may have encountered an abrupt change in weather and entered a fast-moving fog. It then hit a small hill and crashed into the jungle.

Post photojournalist Angad Dhakal, who reached the crash site after an hour, said the area was blanketed by a thick fog. According to him, the locals reported a “big bang” inside the bushes.

“The scene was horrific. Police were searching for missing body parts scattered over 50 metres.”

The chopper had been totally burnt, except for the tail.

DIG Dan Bahadur Karki, spokesperson for Nepal Police, said the bodies of four men and a woman were pulled from the wreckage. The chopper was flown by Captain Arun Malla, who also died.

The crash site is in Suryachaur of Nuwakot district.

Air Dynasty Heli Service is one of the oldest helicopter rescue companies in Nepal. It was founded in 1993 by Ang Tshering Sherpa, the owner of Yeti Group, who also died in an Air Dynasty helicopter crash in Pathibhara, Taplejung, in 2019.

Along with him were tourism and civil aviation minister Rabindra Adhikari and a few top officials of the civil aviation body.

In the past two years, there have been eight crashes—six fatal. On May 29 2022, a Tara Air plane carrying 22 people crashed on its way to Jomsom from Pokhara, killing 22 on board. On January 15, 2023, a Yeti Airlines plane crashed in Pokhara, killing 72 aboard. On July 11 last year, a Manang Air chopper crashed near Lamjura in Solukhumbu district, killing everyone aboard, including five Mexican tourists and a Nepali pilot.

On October 14, a helicopter of Manang Air flying towards Solukhumbhu came down in Lobuche. Captain Prakash Kumar Sedhai, who was injured in the crash, died while undergoing treatment in India.

On July 24, a Saurya Airlines plane crashed at the Tribhuvan International Airport, killing 18 people. At least 124 people have died in air crashes in the past two years, which suggests that air safety in Nepal has truly gone for a toss.

“It’s unfortunate, again. Unless we focus on strengthening the Safety Oversight system, these kinds of accidents will continue to happen,” said Rajan Pokhrel, former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. “The prerequisite to strengthening safety oversight is establishing a dedicated aviation regulator, which the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal is not.”

Wednesday’s crash is the eighth under Pradip Adhikari, the director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, and the fifth fatal one of his tenure.

On Sunday, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and a group of party lawmakers met Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to discuss domestic air safety.

“The meeting was focused on tabling the civil aviation bills, which aim to split the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal into two entities: a service provider and a regulator,” said Rajendra Bajgain, one of the lawmakers.

“The way people are being killed due to regulatory failures amounts to a heinous crime,” he said. The lawmakers have been demanding that Adhikari be sacked, for allegedly stopping the passage of the bills and for the lack of efforts to make Nepali skies safe.

“A man has eight crashes under his belt. And yet, the government is not serious about his performance. The series of crashes has caused a big dent in Nepali tourism’s global image,” said Bajgain.

In 2014, Spanish consultancy INECO prepared the first draft of the proposed legislation with $4.2 million in funding from the Asian Development Bank. The process had received the approval from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal board in 2010.

Since then, several drafts have been prepared and discarded. The draft of the bills prepared by a consulting firm of former law secretary Raju Man Singh Malla and reviewed by the Tourism Ministry was registered in the National Assembly on February 23, 2020, after the go-ahead by the KP Sharma Oli-led Cabinet at that time.

The two pieces of legislation—the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal Bill and the Air Service Authority of Nepal Bill—were unanimously passed by the National Assembly on August 2, 2021.

Since then, the bills’ tabling in the lower house has been blocked.

“Now, the bills are back in the Oli Cabinet. It is the incumbent prime minister’s moral duty to table the bills that the upper house has already approved. It is the fastest way to break up the civil aviation body—and to make the Nepali skies safer,” said Pokhrel.