Two Helicopters Collide at Pheriche Helipad Below Everest, Indian Tourist Killed

Two helicopters collided as they prepared to land at the Pheriche helipad in Nepal's Mount Everest region on Tuesday, November 3. An Indian national was killed and a New Zealander was injured and rescued, the chief district officer of Solukhumbu district, Kaman Singh Thapa Magar, told Reuters.

What happened at the helipad

The collision happened at about 8:11 a.m. local time (0226 GMT) at Pheriche, a village at 4,200 metres (13,780 feet) just below Mount Everest base camp in Solukhumbu district. Assistant sub-inspector Mukesh Singh told the dpa news agency that the helicopters' rotor blades struck each other as they were landing.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said one aircraft was an AS350 helicopter operated by Air Dynasty Heli Service, registration 9N-AOD, which had departed Lukla Airport for Pheriche. The other was an AS350 operated by Fishtail Air, registration 9N-AJR, which had departed the Gorakshep area for Pheriche carrying two foreign nationals. The authority put the collision at 8:12 a.m. local time as both aircraft came in to land.

The dead and the injured

The man who died at the scene was a 47-year-old passenger aboard the Fishtail Air helicopter. Deputy Superintendent of Police Nabin Raja Budhathoki of the District Police Office in Solukhumbu told IANS that the man killed was Vasanth Kumar, an Indian national from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, and that the injured passenger is a New Zealand national of Indian origin, named in reports as Shailesh Krishna Patel. The New Zealand passenger was airlifted to Kathmandu for treatment.

Reports differ on the full injury count, and officials have not yet confirmed how many people were on board the two helicopters in total. Reuters and the Associated Press reported that a Nepali pilot was also hurt. Other reports said both pilots were injured and taken to Kathmandu for treatment, with police describing their injuries as minor. Police said they were still collecting details.

A rescue flight and a cargo flight

Fishtail Air said in a statement that its helicopter was carrying passengers who had been rescued from the Everest region when it crashed while landing. An official of the other operator said its helicopter was carrying only cargo. The Fishtail Air aircraft had been carrying two passengers and a pilot, according to dpa.

Peak season in the Khumbu

The accident comes during the peak trekking season in Nepal, when helicopters ferry hikers and climbers through the Everest region. Pheriche sits on the route below base camp, and its helipad handles flights linking Lukla, Gorakshep and the high villages of the Khumbu during the busiest weeks of the year.

The cause of the collision is under investigation. Officials have not said how the two aircraft came to be landing at the same helipad at the same moment, and no finding has been announced.