Miami Surgeon Killed In Nepal Plane Crash
KATHMANDU (CBS4) – A vascular surgeon who practiced at University of Miami Hospital was killed in a plane crash along with 18 other people in a forested area near Kathmandu, Nepal.
Jagajan (JJ) Karmacharya was originally from Nepal but lived and worked in Miami. He served as an Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery at the hospital. Two of his relatives were also killed in the crash, as well as a friend from South Florida, Natalie Neilan.
"I think that his family must be suffering enormously because his mother, he went there to visit his ailing mother," said Dr. Karen Nishida, an ex-fiance of Karmacharya.
The flight was a short trip designed to give them a glimpse of Mt Everest. Nishida said flying was Karmacharya's first love. "That was one of his passions. If he didn't become a surgeon he used to want to be a pilot," she said. "His dad said to him, why do you want to be a pilot? That's like being a glorified bus driver. Why don't you be a physician?"
Karmacharya took his father's advice and went on to become a highly successful surgeon. "He had such an amazing courage and sympathy,": said Nishida. "He was probably the best physician I had ever met in terms of incredibly sympathetic and committed and he was so caring and I think he took his patients suffering on."
Its not clear if Karmacharya suffered in the end... the mangled wreckage littered the dense brush in Nepal. One person who survived the crash of the Buddha Air Beech aircraft, a 36-year old Nepali man, died shortly afterward at the hospital.
According to investigators, the aircraft was returning from its trip to the Mt. Everest region when it crashed while returning to the capital city. Initial reports indicate bad weather and poor visibility may led to the crash. The black box of the aircraft has been recovered.
Locals, soldiers and armed policemen teamed up to recover the bodies and bring them back to Kathmandu.
Buddha Air has had one of the safest flying records in Nepal, this being the first major mishap in almost 14 years.
