Two men are dead after a car was found submerged in a pond outside a hotel in Chantilly, Virginia, Thursday morning, police say.
The car slid on ice, skidded through the snow down a hill and into the freezing cold pond near the Wingate by Wyndham hotel on Centerview Drive about 7:30 a.m., Fairfax County police said.
The driver, 55-year-old Karna Khadka, and passenger, 20-year-old Nischal Bhatta, were trapped inside as the car sank into the partially frozen water.
Once rescue crews got to the car, it was 10 feet deep in the water and both men were dead, according to police dispatch audio. Police said they drowned.
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"It's such a small, decorative pond. You don't think that you could actually get submerged in it," said Bonnie Golden, a nearby resident who witnessed the rescue effort. "Terrible to think that could be where you would die."
Coworkers said Khadka worked at the Wingate and he had Bhatta with him because the 20-year-old planned to apply for a job.
Coworkers briefly gathered outside to take in the sudden loss of their colleague in a crash described as a freak accident.
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The pond is in a business district not far from Washington Dulles International Airport.
Ernesto Gonzalez is the former general manager of the hotel and said once he saw the car on the news, he recognized it as Khadka's.
"I assumed it was him because of his car. I know his car. And then I made a phone call and confirmed it was him. So it kind of hit me. It shocked me," he said.
Gonzalez and others said both men were from Nepal and he couldn't believe his former employee was killed like this.
"Everybody loved him. When he was here, he was one of the fastest so I'm sure he'll be missed," Gonzalez said.
Stay with News4 for updates to this developing story.
