Anil Giri – AHN News Correspondent
Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – In a major operation jointly lunched by the Nepal Army and Nepali private Airlines, more than 2,000 tourists, stranded in Lukla due to inclement weather that made it impossible for airline companies to operate flights to and from the airstrip there for the past week, were rescued on Saturday. Nepal Army helicopters and other private airlines were mobilized to rescue them from the only airport of the Everest region, Lukla.
“The passengers were stranded due to bad weather there. The rescue was possible due to good weather on Saturday and the help from Nepal Army,” said Sarad Pradhan, media consultant at the Nepal Tourism Board(NTB).
According to Pradhan the Army helicopter was mobilized on Saturday in coordination with trekking agents at the request of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation, NTB, Trekking Agents Association of Nepal and Himalayan Rescue Association.
Flights that were cancelled from November 12 due to extremely foggy weather conditions in the region resumed Friday when weather slightly cleared up. Several dozen people chose Friday to trek to Jiri rather than try their luck with flights, a close destination from Lukla. Trekking agencies and the Himalayan Rescue Association (HRA), a non-profit organization that seeks to reduce casualties in the Himalayas, put the number of stranded people in Lukla as of Thursday at over 2,000. Stranded foreigners are paying as much as $ 1,000 for a half an hour flight back to Kathmandu.
The Nepal Army’s Directorate of Public Relations informed that Army helicopters rescued 184 passengers who had poor health condition or had short visa term in Nepal .Among them were eight Nepalis and the remain were foreign tourists who were flown from Lukla to Lamidanda to Kathmandu.
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