Villagers crowd near the crash site at a hill in Ramechhap, near Kathmandu, March 4, 2008. Ten people were killed when a helicopter carrying United Nations officials crashed in bad weather over hilly terrain near Nepal's capital on Monday, police and airport officials said.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
10 people were killed in the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) helicopter crash on Monday, Ian Martin, special representative of the Secretary-General in Nepal said on Tuesday.
Required to "definitely confirm that there were ten people killed" in the crash as UNMIN's former press release claimed, Ian Martin clarified, "Yes, and I believe that the Home Ministry itself confirmed that it is ten. I think that arose because there were passengers on the original manifest who, fortunately, at the last moment, for various reasons, were not on the flight. So that caused the initial confusion."
Ian Martin, briefly remarked to the media on Tuesday afternoon at Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepali capital Kathmandu, after receiving the bodies of UNMIN personnel and helicopter crew from the crash site in Ramechhap district, some 40 km east of Kathmandu.
