CONTINUED INCLEMNT WEATHER DISRUPTS EFFORTS TO RESCUE STRANDED TOURISTS FROM EVEREST REGION

CONTINUED BAD WEATHER DISRUPTS RESCUE AND AIRLIFT OF STRANDED TOURISTS OUT OF MOUNT EVEREST REGION update

Kathmandu, 5 Nov.: For the fifth day, continued bad weather Saturday disrupts efforts to airlift nearly 2,500 tourists from Solukhumbu at the foot of Mount Everest, the 8848 meters high world’s tallest peak—a popular destination for adventure tourists visiting Nepal.
Weather is not cooperating.
Thick fog blanketed Lukla airport preventing commercial flights from landing at the airport named after Tenzing Norgay Sherpa and Edmund Hillary, the first conquerors of the world’s tallest peak in May 1954.
Healthy tourists, their guides and helpers and other stranded Nepalis began trekking to nearby Jiri for a bus ride to the capital.
A Tara Air aircraft stranded at Lukla flew out 16 tourists from the region when there was a brief break in the weather in the morning.
The capital recorded some rainfall Saturday; skies were overcast the whole day.
Amid reports stranded tourists are being fleeced, 11-member headed by Lukla airport chief Utsav Kharel has been formed to rescue and monitoring and rescue the stranded tourists and locals.
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