UK team to sift through Nepal crash debris

Two Air Accidents Investigation Branch officials from the UK are in Kathmandu to assist Nepalese authorities investigating Friday’s crash, which also killed four Chinese, an American and seven locals.

While a Nepalese government spokesman blamed the crash on a “panic-stricken” pilot error, local news reports say investigators are considering other factors including overloading or damage to the tail fin.

“Preliminary findings show that the aircraft was first bird-hit (and) that may have triggered the break-off of the tail fin,” Rameshwore Thapa, president of the Airline Operators of Nepal, told the Kathmandu Post. The official report is not expected for three months.

Britain’s ambassador has visited Nepal’s Tribhuvan University teaching hospital and is in contact with local authorities to provide consular assistance, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office told Channel 4 News today. The ministry had no comment on when the bodies of the seven British nationals might be repatriated.

Crash site

The UK officials plan to visit the crash site, collect factual information and work with the investigation commission. They attend the first meeting of the probe committee on Sunday afternoon, Suresh Acharya, a senior official in the aviation ministry, said. No one at the ministry was available to comment when contacted by Channel 4 News today.

British investigators arrived under the provision of the International Civil Aviation Convention, which states that experts from the country whose citizens are dead in a crash can provide expert support for the investigation process,

“The British government expressed willingness to send them and we are ready to use their expertise,” aviation official Suresh Acharya said.

Gateway to Everest

The twin-propeller Sita Air plane lifted off from Kathmandu for Lukla, the gateway to Mount Everest, when it plunged into the river bank at daybreak.

The British group arrived in Nepal on Wednesday and were due to begin trekking in the Himalayas on Friday The youngest British victim was Ben Ogden, a 27-year-old Oxford University graduate who recently qualified as a solicitor. Timothy Oakes, a 57-year-old secondary school adviser, also died along with his friend Stephen Holding, a 60-year-old retired science teacher. Building contractor Vincent Kelly, 50, and his brother, property developer Darren, 45, were also killed along with Chris Davey, 52, an electronics engineer, and Ray Eagle, 60, a marathon runner.

The victims were too badly burned to be individually identified, hospital officials said. The bodies will be returned to relatives when the results of tests on DNA samples sent abroad have been received.

Explore Worldwide, the company the victims were travelling through, said on Saturday that a representative had arrived in Nepal to provide support to staff and other tour groups in the country.