| Some of Notable Plane Crash in Nepal |
|
|
|
|
In 1975, Edmund Hillary's first wife Louise and daughter Belinda where lost in a plane crash while heading for Lukla.
In 1997, a helicopter crashed right at Everest BC, however, no one was killed. The pilot was Colonel Madan, who had piloted the world’s highest helicopter rescue a year earlier. In 1996 he had flown above the icefall to rescue American Beck Weathers. Madan said of the 1997 crash that he had just lost complete control of the helicopter. In 2001, a chopper crash killed Princess Prekshya, sister of Nepal's former queen Komal - only five months after her husband Prince Dhirendra and much of the Royal family were killed in a midnight shootout in the palace.
In 2002, an Asian Airlines helicopter heading for Lukla crashed with 10 climbing porters belonging to a French Makalu expedition. At the golden jubilee of Everest's first ascent in 2003; a chopper crashed again - near Everest south side BC killing two. In 2005, a big MI-17 helicopter again crashed in Everest Base Camp. As if by miracle nobody was injured or got hit by the flying debris. The scenario was almost an exact repeat of the 2003 crash, "end of season, an elective, non urgent convenience flight sent to pick up a Nepali team not wanting to walk down, the heli carrying television and media crew up to base camp,” reported BaseCampMD. In 2006, Carlos Pauner's Dhaulagiri expedition had a close call: "No sooner had we taken off that we realized something was wrong. Suddenly the chopper started spinning in mid-air, then we dropped. There was no time for panic. In brief seconds, we hit the ground, and started slipping down the glacier, the chopper losing fuselage pieces and spilling fuel on the way. Finally it stopped right on the edge of a very steep slope. We jumped out and ran, expecting it to blow – which luckily didn’t happen.” Also in 2006, a Royal Nepalese Army helicopter carrying soldiers went down120 km south of Kathmandu. According to Indo Asian News Service, the army said the accident was caused by the explosives on board blowing up while the rebels claimed they had brought the chopper down. Again in 2006, a chopper carrying 24 people including officials from the WWF crashed in the Annapurna region of Nepal. A Shree Airlines helicopter carrying Minister Rai and media including international officials from the World Wild Life Fund (WWF) attending a function marking the handing over of the Kanchenjunga Conservation Area to the local community went out of contact shortly after take-off while returning to Suketar from Ghunsa (east Nepal). The missing helicopter was found crashed in a remote corner of north-eastern Nepal. In 2008, Juanito Oiarzabal and seven other climbers crash landed in Makalu’s BC. According to Waldemar and Irivan, who had been airlifted one day before and themselves had suffered a rather bumpy landing, the helicopter was not the expected MI 17, but a smaller MI 8. |
| Next > |
|---|