Crash plane pilots awarded medals

Two pilots who died in a crash landing last week will receive posthumous bravery awards after all their passengers survived, officials said yesterday. Pilot Dinesh Neupane and co-pilot Santosh Rana told passengers before the crash landing they would make sure they survived even if they lost their own lives, the survivors said. Nine passengers including a 17-month-old were on board the single-engine plane operated by Air Kastamandap en route from Nepalganj to Jumla district when it developed technical problems and came down in Kalikot on Friday. It was the second aviation accident in Nepal in three days. Twenty-three people were killed last Wednesday when a plane crashed in the mountains of Myagdi district.