Two helicopters collide at Everest trekking stop, killing Indian tourist

Two helicopters collided while landing at the Pheriche helipad in Solukhumbu district on Tuesday morning, November 3, killing a 47-year-old Indian tourist and injuring three other people, police and Nepal's civil aviation authority said.

Pheriche sits on the main trekking route to Mount Everest Base Camp. Helicopter packages fly visitors to Everest Base Camp with short breakfast stops in villages along the way, BBC Nepali reported. Autumn is a popular trekking season there, and climbers are on Ama Dablam now, BBC Nepali reported.

Police Inspector Mausam Tamang of the Solukhumbu District Police Office identified the dead man as Vasanthkumar Balaramudu, a resident of Chennai in India's Tamil Nadu state, OnlineKhabar reported. He died at the scene, police said. OnlineKhabar's identification report spelled his name Balaramadu. Another OnlineKhabar report spelled it Basantkumar Balaramudu.

The collision happened at around 8:11 am, according to the Tribhuvan International Airport Office. An Air Dynasty helicopter with tail number 9N-AOD, arriving from Lukla, and a Fishtail Air helicopter with tail number 9N-AJR, arriving from Gorakshep, were both landing at Pheriche when they collided, airport General Manager Tek Nath Sitaula said. Gyanendra Bhul, information officer at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Nepal's aviation regulator known as CAAN, said the two aircraft's rotor blades struck each other during landing.

Three people were injured. They were Fishtail Air pilot Rabindra Prajapati, Air Dynasty pilot Prajwal KC, and 49-year-old Selish Kumar Patel, a New Zealand citizen of Indian origin. OnlineKhabar's identification report spelled the injured man's name Celius Kumar Patel. Its pilots report used Selishkumar Patel and Prajal KC. Setopati also wrote Prajal KC. Patel and Prajapati were flown to Nepal Mediciti Hospital in Lalitpur aboard a Prabhu Air helicopter, OnlineKhabar reported. KC is being treated at a hospital in Lukla and is in stable condition, police told OnlineKhabar.

Nepal's Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said in a statement that it has launched an investigation into the crash's cause, Nepal Press reported.

Why both aimed for one pad

The clear cause of the crash is not yet known, BBC Nepali reported. Gyanendra Bhul, CAAN's information officer, gave one possible reason. Other helipads exist at Pheriche, he said, but it appears both helicopters tried to land at the one pad because the others may have been covered in snow. Bhul said the helicopter coming from Lukla and the one returning from Gorakshep near base camp appear to have tried to land at the same place.

Kumar Chalise, an aviation expert, told BBC Nepali that a video of the crash shows both captains watching only the ground and not each other, and that basic rules were not followed. BBC Nepali said it has not verified the video.

Both companies' past crashes

Wikipedia's list of Nepal air accidents records earlier fatal crashes by both operators. It lists a Fishtail Air crash at Rara Lake on November 12, 2001 that killed four, among them Princess Prekshya Shah, the queen's younger sister, per her Wikipedia page. It lists Air Dynasty crashes in Ramechhap on January 4, 2005 that killed three and in Taplejung on February 27, 2019 that killed seven. No official has linked either company's past to this crash.

What we still do not know

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has not said when its investigation will be complete or made public.

Neither CAAN nor the ministry has confirmed why two helicopters, one from Lukla and one from Gorakshep, came down on the same place. They have not settled whether snow-covered pads, pilot coordination or something else put the aircraft on the same flight path. The ministry's investigation is meant to find out, Nepal Press reported.