Key takeaways:
- Fishtail Air identified the tourist killed as Indian national Vasanth Kumar Balaramudu.
- A New Zealand tourist and a Nepali pilot were injured; Air Dynasty said the sole crew member on its cargo helicopter was unhurt.
- The collision occurred during a landing attempt in Pheriche, about 12km south of Mount Everest base camp.
Two helicopters collided while trying to land near Mount Everest base camp, killing an Indian tourist and injuring a passenger and a pilot, officials and a helicopter company said.
The collision happened at about 08:15 local time (02:30 GMT) in Pheriche, roughly 12km (7 miles) south of the base camp. Fishtail Air identified the person killed as Vasanth Kumar Balaramudu, an Indian national. Al Jazeera reported that he was 47.
Fishtail Air said one of its helicopters was involved and that another passenger and the aircraft’s captain were injured. Bhupendra Thapa, an official in Solukhumbu district, told BBC Nepal the injured passenger was a tourist from New Zealand. Al Jazeera identified the injured pilot as Nepali. Fishtail Air said the injured passengers and crew members were rescued and taken to Kathmandu.
The other helicopter, operated by Air Dynasty, was carrying cargo, the company said. It had one crew member, who was not injured. Al Jazeera reported that the total number of people aboard the two helicopters was unclear.
“It appears the accident happened when two helicopters… attempted to land at the same spot,” Gyanendra Bhul, a spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, said.
Footage verified by the BBC shows the helicopters’ blades clipping each other as the aircraft came in to land. One appears to descend more quickly than the other. The BBC said conditions looked clear in the footage, with no strong wind effects visible. Footage posted online also shows more than a dozen people running to safety as the helicopters crashed to the ground, Al Jazeera reported.
Pheriche lies on the trekking route to the summit of Everest, the world’s tallest mountain. The BBC put the village’s elevation at just over 4,000m (13,120ft), while Al Jazeera reported an altitude of 4,200m (13,780ft).
Helicopters are widely used in Nepal’s Himalayan region, where difficult terrain limits ground travel. Al Jazeera reported that there are no roads in the Everest region and that helicopters regularly evacuate trekkers and guides who become ill or exhausted. High altitude and rapidly changing weather can make aviation operations hazardous, the BBC reported.
Climbing expeditions to Everest and nearby Ama Dablam were under way in the region at the time of the collision, according to the BBC.
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