ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 141900
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| Date: | Wednesday 21 May 1997 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Aérospatiale AS 350B2 Ecureuil |
| Owner/operator: | Royal Nepal Army Air Wing |
| Registration: | RAN-32 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Base Camp Helipad, Khumbu Glacier, Mount Everest -
 Nepal
|
| Phase: | Landing |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Tenzing-Hilary Airport, Lukla, Nepal (LUA/VNLK) |
| Base Camp, Khumbu Glacier, Mount Everest, Nepal | |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
Crashed at 17,500 feet AMSL on the Khumbu Glacier, Mount Everest, Nepal on 21 May 1997. Per an eyewitness report:
"The sound, for those of us not watching, was distinct. First there was the ba- ba- ba- ba- ba- ba- ba from the rotor of a helicopter flying over our heads approaching the heli pad at Base Camp, a not uncommon scene. And then the silence was deafening: two and a half seconds of total silence, then a crash. I know the sound all too well as I've been in a helicopter when it had an engine flame out...
"I just lost complete control," said a shaken Colonel Madan K.C., the pilot of the B-2 Squirrel A-Star Ecureuil helicopter that crashed and then flipped on its side some 250 feet from the helicopter pad. Within seconds, all at Base Camp were running toward the helicopter to help rescue survivors. Colonel Madan, the heroic pilot who rescued Beck Weathers and Makalu Gau last year on Everest, in one of the world's highest helicopter rescues, was able to climb out of the helicopter safely with his co-pilot, the only other person on board. The B-2 is a helicopter that is specially modified for performance at high altitude.
Dr. Donner administered to them, and David Breashears was able to speak with Colonel Madan by radio while climbing up from Camp II to Camp III. David and Colonel Madan have a close friendship, after their combined efforts in the helicopter rescue of last year, and the many hours of Himalayan helicopter aerials they've filmed together this year for the NOVA documentary. "Colonel, we're all glad to hear you're okay," said David. The colonel was put on oxygen as soon as he was able to sit down. (He spent several minutes wandering around the downed helicopter and its parts-sprayed environs looking for where the tail hit.)
"We put them on oxygen because they came from Kathmandu valley, which is 4,000 feet above sea level," explains Howard Donner. "The quick ascension from that altitude to 17,600 feet at Base Camp requires that the pilot fly on oxygen at these altitudes. If we didn't put him on oxygen they would've probably developed Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), manifested in headache, dizziness, malaise, and lack of appetite. So we put them on a low flow oxygen just to prevent the onset of AMS, and luckily the weather was good enough to bring in a second B-2 to get them out of here." After contact was made with Kathmandu by the Italian expedition, which called in for a helicopter to rescue the two pilots, the colonel and his co-pilot joined us in our dining tent to wait for the arrival of the helicopter. Calls were made to Kathmandu by satellite phone to family and colleagues, to reassure them that all was well. It took three helicopter landings and takeoffs to evacuate the colonel, his co-pilot, and an injured French climber whom Colonel Madan had flown in to evacuate in the first place. The Colonel insisted on being the last one out, even though he could have rapidly deteriorated at this altitude.
As the B-2 lies slumped like a beached whale on the rock and ice of the Khumbu Glacier, just a few hundred yards from our camp, we marvel at how the thin air up here takes its toll on machines as much as it does on our bodies. And at 23,500 feet, 6,000 feet above us, our team members slumber inside their sleeping bags, awaiting what will be the beginning of a sequence of arduous events leading up to the summit of Everest."
Sources:
1. http://www.scramble.nl [Scramble 220]
2. [LINK NOT WORKING ANYMORE:http://coptercrazy.brinkster.net/search/se350show.asp?start=1&count=50]f
3. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/everest/expeditions/97/dispatches/news970521.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Jan-2012 07:58 | harro | Added |
| 04-Jul-2014 19:52 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative] |
| 19-Dec-2021 00:33 | Ron Averes | Updated [Operator] |
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