One Killed as Two Helicopters Collide Near Everest Base Camp

Photo: Reuters via Jerusalem Post, the two helicopters at Pheriche moments before the collision

One tourist was killed and two other people were hurt in Nepal on Tuesday when two helicopters collided while landing at a high mountain helipad on the way to Everest base camp. Footage shared online shows people running for safety as the two aircraft came down together on the snow.

The crash happened at Pheriche, a village at 4,200 metres in Solukhumbu district, at around 8.11 in the morning local time. Al Jazeera reported that both helicopters were trying to land just below Everest base camp when they hit each other. Police said their rotor blades struck during the landing.

Authorities named the man who died as Vasanth Kumar Balaramaramadu, a 47 year old Indian national. He was travelling on the Fishtail Air helicopter. A New Zealand national on the same aircraft was injured, and a Nepali pilot was also hurt, according to Al Jazeera. Dawn, citing Reuters, reported that the New Zealander was rescued and that the crash took place in the base camp area.

The two companies involved were Fishtail Air and Dynasty Air. Fishtail Air said its helicopter was carrying passengers who had been rescued from the Everest region when it crashed while landing. A Dynasty Air official said its helicopter was carrying only cargo. That detail matters, because it means the second aircraft had no tourists on board, and the toll could easily have been worse.

Pheriche sits on the trekking route to Everest base camp, about 150 kilometres north east of Kathmandu. There are no roads up there, so helicopters do the work that roads do elsewhere: they ferry trekkers and climbers, carry supplies, and evacuate people who fall sick or get tired on the trail. This is peak trekking season, so the skies above the Khumbu valley are busy, with small helicopters coming and going all day.

That busy sky is also why this crash will be looked at closely. Two helicopters trying to land at the same small helipad, at high altitude, in thin air, leave very little room for error. Police have launched an investigation, and the exact cause is not yet known. Early reports point to the rotor blades touching as both aircraft came in to land, but officials have not confirmed a final cause.

Nepal has seen mountain flying accidents before, and the wider region has had a bad week in the air. Just last week, six people were killed when a helicopter flying from Badrinath to Dehradun crashed in the Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, Dawn noted. For trekkers heading to Everest, the lesson is a sobering one: the flight to base camp is part of the adventure, but it carries real risk, and weather, altitude and crowded helipads all add to it.

For now, the human facts are simple and sad. One family has lost a 47 year old man who went to Nepal as a tourist. Two other people are hurt and getting treatment. And a village that normally welcomes trekkers spent its morning watching a rescue instead. The region has seen other recent disasters, from Cyclone Arnab deaths in neighbouring India to the war news from Ukraine and the European troops rehearsing a Ukraine deployment, but for the people at Pheriche today, this crash is the story that matters.

Sources

• Al Jazeera: One dead after two helicopters collide near Mount Everest in Nepal
• Dawn (Reuters): Indian national killed after 2 helicopters collide in Nepal's Mount Everest region
• Jerusalem Post (Reuters): One killed, one injured in Nepal helicopter crash near Mount Everest

Watch for the investigation findings and an update on the injured passengers.

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