NEPAL: Family and supporters honored Sunday the 85-year-old climber who died attempting to regain his title as the oldest person to scale Mount Everest, while Nepali officials stressed the need to limit the age for such a daunting physical challenge.
The death of Min Bahadur Sherchan has revived concerns about allowing elderly people to attempt scale mountain peaks where the conditions are harsh and oxygen level low.
Under Nepali law, climbers have to be at least 16 years old to climb Everest, but there’s no upper limit.
“It is very necessary to immediately bring that age limit law. If there had been a limit, the loss of life could have been prevented,” said Ang Tshering, head of the Nepal Mountaineering Association.
The association is planning to push the government to limit the age of climbers to at least 76, he said.
Sherchan died on Saturday evening at the Everest base camp. Another Nepali man, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya, died in 2011 at age 82 while attempting to scale Everest.
Dinesh Bhattarai, who heads the Tourism Department, said that the government is seriously discussing limiting the age for elderly climbers.
Sherchan’s body was flown by helicopter to Katmandu on Sunday. The cause of death was still unclear and the autopsy result will be available in a few days.
Sherchan had first scaled Everest in May 2008 when he was 76 — at the time becoming the oldest climber to reach the top. But his record was broken in 2013 by 80-year-old Japanese Yuichiro Miura.
At a funeral ceremony held at the Thakali Service Society premises in Katmandu, hundreds of family members, friends and supporters offered flowers and colorful scarfs while Buddhist monks chanted a hymn and burnt sandalwood incense.
A government minister and fellow climbers were also among those who paid their respects.
The body was later cremated.
Sherchan is survived by a wife, seven children, 17 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
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Nepal wants to limit age for Everest after 85-year-old dies
Nepal wants to limit age for Everest after 85-year-old dies
New hunt for flight MH370 ends with no clues to 12-year mystery
- The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people vanished from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing
KUALA LUMPUR: The latest search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which went missing 12 years ago in one of aviation’s greatest enduring mysteries, concluded in January without yielding any findings, Malaysia’s transport ministry said on Sunday.
The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people vanished from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others included Malaysians, Indonesians and Australians, as well as Indian, American, Dutch and French nationals.
Despite multiple searches, including the largest in aviation history, neither the aircraft, passengers nor black boxes have ever been found.
The latest search, which began in December, scoured an area of around 15,000 square kilometers but efforts “have not yielded any findings that confirm the location of the aircraft wreckage,” Malaysia’s transport ministry said in a statement.
Exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led the search which concluded on January 23.
Families of the Chinese passengers published an open letter on Sunday — the 12th anniversary of the flight’s disappearance — criticizing the lack of information they received during the latest search.
“We understand the difficulties of the search,” the relatives said in a joint open letter to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, in which they thanked him for the initiative.
“However, since 15 January this year, families have received no further search briefings whatsoever.”
“Over the past two months, we have repeatedly contacted Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport through both Malaysia Airlines and the Chinese government, yet have received no response,” they said.
In an attempt to locate the aircraft, Ocean Infinity deployed autonomous underwater drones capable of diving to depths of up to 6,000 meters (20,000 feet).
The company conducted previous unsuccessful searches in 2018, as did Australia for three years until January 2017.
In their letter, the Chinese families added that “for 12 years, we have received virtually no genuine psychological support.”
“We ask for little: only to be seen, to be heard, and to be treated as individuals with emotions and dignity.”
The families are expected to be received by China’s foreign ministry on Monday, as they are every year, before visiting the Malaysian embassy in Beijing to deliver the letter for Anwar.
The Boeing 777 carrying 239 people vanished from radar screens on March 8, 2014, while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.
Two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the others included Malaysians, Indonesians and Australians, as well as Indian, American, Dutch and French nationals.
Despite multiple searches, including the largest in aviation history, neither the aircraft, passengers nor black boxes have ever been found.
The latest search, which began in December, scoured an area of around 15,000 square kilometers but efforts “have not yielded any findings that confirm the location of the aircraft wreckage,” Malaysia’s transport ministry said in a statement.
Exploration firm Ocean Infinity, based in Britain and the United States, led the search which concluded on January 23.
Families of the Chinese passengers published an open letter on Sunday — the 12th anniversary of the flight’s disappearance — criticizing the lack of information they received during the latest search.
“We understand the difficulties of the search,” the relatives said in a joint open letter to Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, in which they thanked him for the initiative.
“However, since 15 January this year, families have received no further search briefings whatsoever.”
“Over the past two months, we have repeatedly contacted Malaysia’s Ministry of Transport through both Malaysia Airlines and the Chinese government, yet have received no response,” they said.
In an attempt to locate the aircraft, Ocean Infinity deployed autonomous underwater drones capable of diving to depths of up to 6,000 meters (20,000 feet).
The company conducted previous unsuccessful searches in 2018, as did Australia for three years until January 2017.
In their letter, the Chinese families added that “for 12 years, we have received virtually no genuine psychological support.”
“We ask for little: only to be seen, to be heard, and to be treated as individuals with emotions and dignity.”
The families are expected to be received by China’s foreign ministry on Monday, as they are every year, before visiting the Malaysian embassy in Beijing to deliver the letter for Anwar.
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