Nepalese military service members unload supplies from a UH-1Y Huey in Charikot, Nepal. (AFP Photo / Handout / US Marine Corps Lance CPL. Mandaline Hatch)
Charred bodies of all eight soldiers onboard the US Marine chopper that crashed in a remote hilly area while delivering aid in quake-hit Nepal have been recovered, Nepalese Army said today as seven aftershocks were felt and death toll from the fresh temblor rose to 136.
Nepal Army rescue team spotted wrecked parts of the US Marine Corps UH-1 Huey, that went missing from the remote and rugged area of Gorthali village in Sindhupalchowk district since Tuesday when the second powerful temblor struck, yesterday on a steep slope of the mountainside.
Three of the eight bodies were recovered from its wreckage yesterday soon after it was located.
The parts of the Huey - a helicopter dating back to the Vietnam War era - were found scattered around at 11,200-feet altitude, Nepal Army said. Eight bodies have also been recovered from the crash site - all of them charred and in a state beyond recognition, the Army said in a statement.
The remains would soon be transferred to Kathmandu, Nepal Army spokesman Jagadish Pokharel said. The chopper carrying two Nepalese Army personnel and six US Marines to deliver aid and relief materials in Charikot and Dolakha, two of the districts most affected by the quakes, had crashed in the mountainous region of Sindhupalchowk, it said.
The disappearance of the helicopter - among over a dozen US military aircraft undertaking aid operations - had triggered intense search involving US and Nepalese aircraft and even US satellites besides hundreds of American and Nepalese ground troops.
Both the US and Nepalese Army have reached the site, though the real cause of the crash is not yet known.
"Together we mourn as our nation and the Federal Republic of Nepal have lost eight courageous men. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families," said commander of the US Pacific Command Admiral Samuel J Locklear.