AKIPRESS.COM - The wreckage of a U.S. military helicopter lost on an earthquake relief mission was found on Friday, high on a mountainside in Nepal, with three bodies recovered and the other five people on board feared dead.

A U.S. search team identified the wreckage as that of the missing Marines UH-1Y Huey helicopter deployed after the Himalayan state was hit by a massive earthquake last month that killed more than 8,000 people.

Crash debris was found just 8 miles (13 km) north of the town of Charikot, said Army Major Dave Eastburn, spokesman for the U.S. military's regional Pacific Command.

"The assessment of the site is ongoing and a thorough investigation will be conducted," he added in a statement.

The U.S. statement made no mention of the fate of the six Marines and two Nepali soldiers on board the Huey that went missing on Tuesday, the day a strong aftershock hit Nepal and killed more than 100 people.

Nepal says none of the eight on board could have survived, reports Reuters.