Chairman and vice chairman depart Saturday to oversee on-site response

Helicopter restrictions and bad weather hampering search operations

Families of missing workers urge authorities to act before golden hour passes

Park Jung-won, chairman of Doosan Group. [Provided by Doosan] Park Jung-won, chairman of Doosan Group. [Provided by Doosan]

Doosan Group Chairman Park Jung-won and Vice Chairman Park Ji-won are flying to Nepal on Saturday to oversee the on-site response after six Doosan Enerbility employees lost contact amid catastrophic flooding in the country.

Park is scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu on a Korean Air direct flight that afternoon and plans to personally support search and rescue operations from there.

A total of nine South Koreans remain out of contact following the floods — six Doosan Enerbility employees and three workers from Korea South-East Power (KOEN).

The search has run into serious difficulties. Roads leading to the affected area have been washed out, effectively cutting off ground access, while Nepalese authorities have restricted helicopter operations and bad weather has compounded the problem.

On Friday evening, a KOEN helicopter conducted the first search flight over the site but returned without results.

Doosan Enerbility had chartered two helicopters on Friday and prepared to fly them, but could not carry out search operations after failing to obtain clearance. If Nepalese authorities grant permission Saturday, the company plans to deploy one helicopter and drones in the search.

Families of the missing Doosan Enerbility workers are appealing for urgent action. “It has already been more than 48 hours since the accident in local time, and not a single helicopter has been able to take off,” they said. “Please get the helicopters in the air quickly — the rescue golden hour is running out.”

In a post on the company’s internal board on Thursday, Park said the company was treating the safety and safe return of its employees as its top priority, working closely with local authorities and relevant agencies and checking on conditions through every available channel.

He went on to say the company was “concentrating all of its organizational capabilities to ensure that the measures needed for search, rescue and recovery are carried out swiftly and systematically.”

Doosan Enerbility activated an emergency response headquarters of about 40 people immediately after the large-scale flooding struck on Wednesday, and has been working with the South Korean government and local authorities to support search and rescue efforts.

In Nepal, an on-site response team led by Vice Chairman and CEO Jeong Yeon-in is already operating.

Doosan Group is also taking additional steps, including pledging $5 million in emergency support to the Rasuwa region of Nepal to assist with local search and rescue operations and damage recovery.

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This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.