RMAF to ferry 85 Malaysians back home from Nepal today

A Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Charlie 130 aircraft with 85 on board is expected to depart Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at around 7am today.

This will be the first flight to bring home Malaysians stranded in Nepal following the devastating earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale that struck the country on last Saturday.

Several aftershocks have since also occurred.

The Counsellor/Charge d'Affaires of the Malaysian Embassy in Kathmandu, Fadli Adilah said the 85 passengers include 13 participants of the 7 Continents Exploration Club's (KE7B) Annapurna high altitude expedition programme.

"Tonight, some of them will be staying in guest houses, while the others sleep at the airport, awaiting the flight home.

"Electricity supply in Kathmandu is still cut off, food rationed and the use of online communication and the Internet is limited," he said when contacted by Bernama, on Monday night.

He also said that so far the embassy had not received any reports of Malaysians killed, wounded or missing.

Meanwhile, a KE7B participant and also a BERNAMA TV reporter, Nazahiyah Mohd Hadzir said, the programme had to be cancelled following a series of aftershocks.

She added that all the expedition participants, locals and visitors alike, had to sleep in open fields, after authorities disallowed staying at hotels due to security reasons.

"While sleeping, we still felt the tremors," said Nazahiyah, who is at the airport now waiting for further instructions from the authorities.

So far, the earthquake, the worst to hit Nepal in the last 81 years has recorded more than 3,900 deaths with more than 7,100 people injured.

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