Helicopters collide near Mount Everest, killing 1, Nepal Police say
Two helicopters crashed into each other as they attempted to land near Mount Everest in Nepal on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring three others, including both pilots, according to the Nepal Police.
The helicopters crashed at a helipad in the Solukhumbu district, police said. The crash was caught on a livestream weather camera run by Webcam Nepal after about 8 a.m. local time.
Both helicopters were attempting to land at the helipad in Pheriche, which sits at an altitude of about 4,200 meters and is on the way to an Everest base camp, Nabin Raja Budhathoki, the deputy superintendent of police and the head of the office in Solukhumbhu, told ABC News.
A pilot was the only passenger onboard one of the helicopters, which was a commercial cargo craft operated by Air Dynasty, police said. That helicopter was flying from Lukla to Pheriche.
The other, which was operated by Fishtail Air, was returning from an Everest base camp carrying a pilot and two foreign passengers, one of whom died at the scene, police said.
The man who died at the scene was identified as Vasanth Kumar Balaramudu, of Chennai, India, police said. The other passenger was Shailesh Krishan Patel, of New Zealand, police said, adding that Patel was seriously injured and was airlifted directly to Nepal Mediciti Hospital in Kathmandu.
Both pilots were also injured, police said. The Fishtail pilot was taken to a hospital near Kathmandu, while the Air Dynasty pilot was being treated in Lukla, police said.
While the high-traffic Everest climbing season is over, Nepal is in the midst of its prime autumn trekking season, even as the country recovers from a devastating monsoon period that included deadly late-August flash floods.
The crash may mark another setback for Nepal’s vital tourism and aviation sectors.
