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Members of a joint government rapid response team board a helicopter for a search operation at a helipad in Kathmandu domestic airport, Nepal, on the 29th local time. / Courtesy of Rapid Response Team

The government decided to continue helicopter search operations on the 30th to locate nine South Korean nationals who remain out of contact following the massive floods in Nepal. Authorities plan to deploy more helicopters than the previous day and expand the search perimeter.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, nine South Korean nationals have remained unaccounted for since the disaster struck on the 26th. All ten South Koreans who had been stranded in temporary shelters have been rescued.

The government plans to deploy a total of two helicopters for the search that day, including one chartered by the joint government rapid response team and another chartered by Doosan Enerbility. On the previous day, a single government-chartered helicopter took off twice.

While Nepalese authorities generally restrict civilian helicopter flights, they reportedly granted an exceptional flight permit for the helicopter chartered by the South Korean government.

Helicopter search operations have been conducted three times so far, beginning at 5:13 p.m. on the 28th, followed by flights at 11:45 a.m. and 12:38 p.m. on the 29th. Each flight lasted approximately 40 minutes, with visual searches conducted over the suspected disaster area for about 20 to 30 minutes.

However, the rugged and steep mountain terrain, coupled with dense vegetation, is hampering helicopter landings and survivor detection efforts. A Foreign Ministry official stated, "We plan to launch additional search operations based on the results of the two searches conducted the previous day, and the search area will also be expanded."

Meanwhile, regarding concerns that about 100 people were trapped inside a hydroelectric power plant tunnel and that South Koreans might be among them, the ministry official said, "The tunnel in question is not a workplace for our nationals and is located at a distance that requires vehicular travel," adding, "We assess that the possibility of our nationals having evacuated to the tunnel during the flood is extremely low."

                                                                                                              Lee Han-sol