5 people killed in a helicopter crash in the mountains northwest of Nepal's capital

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — All five people on board a helicopter were killed when it crashed Wednesday in the mountains just northwest of Nepal’s capital, authorities said.

The bodies of four men and a woman were pulled from the wreckage, said Krishna Prasad Humagai, the government administrator of Nuwakot district.

Police and army rescuers reached the area and two rescue helicopters were also sent to assist in the operation, the official said.

The crash site is in the Suryachaur area, which is just northwest of Kathmandu, and is on a mountain covered by forest.

The helicopter had taken off from Kathmandu international airport at 1:54 p.m. local time and was heading towards the town of Syaprubeshi.

The helicopter, an Eurocopter AS350 belonging to Nepal-based Air Dynasty, had lost contact with the tower just three minutes after takeoff, according to a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

The four passengers are Chinese nationals, and the pilot is a Nepali man, officials said.

The crash came two weeks after a passenger plane crashed just after taking off from the Kathmandu airport, killing 18 people and injuring a pilot, who was the lone survivor.

All the people onboard the Saurya Airlines flight, including the co-pilot, were Nepali except for one passenger, who was a Yemeni national.

A government investigation has been ordered into the crash of the Bombardier CRJ 200 plane, which was heading to Nepal’s second-most populous city of Pokhara for maintenance work. Most of the passengers aboard were either mechanics or airline employees, airport officials said.

The pilot has injuries to his eyes has returned home from a hospital.

The bodies of four Chinese passengers and the pilot from Nepal are placed near the site of crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Ambulance vehicles with the bodies of four Chinese passengers and the pilot from Nepal leave the site of crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, towards a hospital northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Rescuers carry the bodies of four Chinese passengers and the pilot from Nepal on the site of crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Rescuers carry the bodies of four Chinese passengers and the pilot from Nepal on the site of crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Rescuers carry the four Chinese passengers and the pilot from Nepal on the site of crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Rescuers carry the bodies of four Chinese passengers and the pilot from Nepal on the site of crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Rescuers carry the bodies of four Chinese passengers and the pilot from Nepal on the site of crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Rescuers carry the bodies of four Chinese passengers and the pilot from Nepal on the site of crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A policeman holds a part of a crashed helicopter of the Nepal-based Air Dynasty in Suryachaur area, northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

Rescuers work on the site of a crashed helicopter in Suryachaur area, which is just northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Nirajan Shrestha)

Rescuers work on the site of a crashed helicopter in Suryachaur area, which is just northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Nirajan Shrestha)

The debris from a crashed helicopter lies on a mountainside in Suryachaur area, which is just northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Nirajan Shrestha)

Rescuers stand by bodies recovered from the site of a helicopter that crashed in Suryachaur area, which is just northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Nirajan Shrestha)

Rescuers work at the site of a helicopter that crashed in Suryachaur area, which is just northwest of Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Nirajan Shrestha)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia said Monday it has captured the village of Levadne in southern Ukraine as it probes for weaknesses along the war ’s roughly 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, including in eastern areas which currently are the main focus of Moscow’s military effort before winter arrives.

Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, reported no nighttime Shahed drone attacks on the country for the first time in about six weeks, after saying five days ago it struck a Shahed storage facility in Russia’s Krasnodar region where some 400 drones reportedly were being kept.

In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said Russian troops took Levadne in the Zaporizhzhia region. Levadne was seized by the Russians early during the war but was recaptured by Ukrainian forces during a counteroffensive in the summer of 2023.

Ukraine’s troops are straining to hold back Russia’s military might, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, and don’t have the manpower or weaponry to launch their own offensive. Though Russia’s gains have been incremental, its steady forward movement is slowly adding up as the Ukrainians are pushed backward.

Ukraine says it needs more Western help to have a chance of holding back Russia’s invasion.

Russia illegally annexed four regions of Ukraine, including Zaporizhzhia, in September 2022. Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from all four regions as the main condition for a prospective peace deal, a demand Ukraine and the West have rejected.

The Ukrainian General Staff last week reported a direct hit on the Shahed drone warehouse inside Russia.

“The destruction of the Shahed drone storage base will significantly reduce the ability of Russian occupiers to terrorize peaceful residents of Ukrainian cities and villages,” it said at the time.

Ukrainian officials are keen to show the West they are not giving up the fight against their much bigger neighbor. An incursion into Russia’s Kursk border region has put Ukrainian troops on Russian soil for more than two months.

Ukraine has also deployed sophisticated new long-range drones to strike targets inside Russia, including airfields, oil refineries and ammunition depots.

The Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence said Monday it destroyed a Russian military transport aircraft, a Tu-134, at a military airfield in Russia’s Orenburg region.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this image made from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, a Russian sniper, in an undisclosed location, fires towards Ukrainian forces. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Russia says it captured a southern Ukraine village in a push before winter comes

Russia says it captured a southern Ukraine village in a push before winter comes

In this image made from video released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday, Oct. 11, 2024, a Russian sniper, in an undisclosed location, fires towards Ukrainian forces. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)