[Anchor]
To find the nine missing South Korean nationals, the government is preparing for helicopter searches again today (August 30). Our reporter is stationed near the international airport in Nepal where the search helicopters are located.
Kwon Min-kyu, has there been any progress in the search?
[Reporter]
Yes, I am near Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal.
You can likely see five to six helicopters lined up in the distance behind me.
Although the government and corporations rented helicopters to prepare for the search again today, no news has been heard yet about finding the missing South Koreans.
The joint government-corporate rapid response team also rented a private helicopter yesterday and conducted two searches, each lasting about 45 minutes, over areas where the missing South Koreans are believed to be.
They reported seeing a Nepalese military helicopter land in the area to conduct search operations from the air.
However, they explained that because the terrain is entirely muddy and heavily sloped, it was difficult to land on the ground and search on foot unless using a military helicopter.
[Anchor]
The families of the missing are pleading for helicopters to be sent out just one more time. How was the situation today?
[Reporter]
Yes, I have been watching the helicopter boarding area here all along.
We could see helicopters presumed to be for search operations repeatedly taking off and landing.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the government and Doosan Enerbibility each rented a helicopter today.
While permission to take off was reportedly granted only to South Korea's helicopter among multiple requesting nations yesterday, there is no news of approval yet today.
The response team is also reviewing plans to deploy drones along with helicopter searches to locate the missing persons.
The second response team, which arrived additionally in Nepal yesterday afternoon, brought search drones from Korea to the site.
The 119 Rescue Services are also standing by to be deployed immediately once approval is granted by local Nepalese authorities.
The response team stated that, based on the friendly diplomatic relations between South Korea and Nepal, they will continuously request cooperation from the Nepalese military authorities for helicopter searches, while planning to expand the search range for the missing persons based on video footage captured from the air by the response team.
(Video reporting: Seol Chi-hwan, Kang Si-woo | Video editing: Lee So-young)
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