One soldier was killed and four others were injured when they accidentally jumped on a minefield following a helicopter accident, a security source told Nepalnews. The Russian manufactured M-117 transport helicopter was one of two donated recently by the British government to the Royal Nepal Army.
The helicopter was ferrying supplies to an army contingent guarding a repeater station of the Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) at Mahadev danda about 50kms south of the capital.
One report said the helicopter crashed in bad weather conditions. “We have just have preliminary reports, we don’t know know how badly the helicopter was damaged, or the condition of the crew or how the accident occurred while landing, ” the security source said.
A rescue team could not land at the accident site because of the minefield around the repeater station. The rescue team finally cleared the minefield after trekking nearly 3 hours from the foot of the hill where they were dropped.