German team to help identify Nepal crash victims

KATHMANDU, Oct 9 (Reuters) - German forensic experts will help Nepali authorities identify the bodies of 18 tourists killed in a plane crash this week near Mount Everest, a government official said on Thursday.

Twelve Germans and two Australians were among those on board a Twin Otter aircraft, operated by private Yeti Airlines, that crashed on Wednesday shortly before it was due to land at Lukla, known as the gateway to the world's highest peak.

The 18 bodies were brought to the capital Kathmandu on Thursday. A team of German forensic experts was on its way to Nepal to help identify the remains, said Modraj Dotel, a home ministry spokesman.

"They should be here by tomorrow," he said.

A crew member who survived the fiery crash is recovering in a hospital in Kathmandu.

The government has formed a panel to investigate the crash, which the chief of Nepal's civil aviation authority said on Wednesday was probably caused by a sudden change in the weather.

The panel is expected to submit a report within two months.

The remote airport at Lukla, about 125 km (80 miles) northeast of Kathmandu, was built in the 1960s by mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary to facilitate expeditions to Mount Everest and help develop the area that is home to the Sherpa community.

Nepal named the airport this year after Hillary and his climbing mate, Tenzing Norgay Sherpa, as a tribute to the pair who climbed Everest first in 1953. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Rina Chandran and Paul Tait) (For the latest Reuters news on Nepal see: in.reuters.com, for blogs see blogs.reuters.com/in/)