2 Gujaratis die in Nepal plane crash

Nineteen people died in a plane crash near Kathmandu on Sunday, including 10 Indians. Of 10 Indian victims, a couple, Pankaj Mehta and his wife Chhaya Mehta, were from Gujarat. 57-year-old Mehta was working as chief of the health section of UNICEF, Kathmandu.

According to Mehta’s colleagues, the couple had been here for the past three years. Other eight victims were leading builders from Tiruchirappalli in Tamil Nadu. They were all members of the general council of the Builders Association of India, who had been in New Delhi since September 21 to attend the annual meeting of the industry body.

“After the meeting, all of us, except those from Trichy, returned to Chennai on Saturday. The others went to Nepal for sight-seeing,” JR Sethuramalingam, vice-president, BAI told DNA. He said members of the Trichy group were in the 35 to 50 age group.

The Buddha Air-103 flight, which crashed at 7.30am local time, had taken the tourists to see Mount Everest and other high peaks.

It broke into pieces at Kotdanda hills minutes after losing contact with the control tower, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). Apart from the Indians, two Americans, a Japanese and six Nepalese, including three crew members of Buddha Air, were killed in the crash, officials said. The CAAN has formed a three-member team, headed by its former director general Jajeshraj Dali, to investigate the crash. Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa and DMK chief M Karunanidhi condoled the deaths of the 19 passengers.   

— With inputs from agency