An Indian national was killed and a New Zealander of Indian origin and two pilots injured when two helicopters collided while attempting to land in Nepal’s Everest region on Tuesday morning.

The deceased was identified as 47-year-old Vasanth Kumar Balaramudu of Chennai, India, who was aboard a Fishtail Air helicopter. Shailesh Krishna Patel, the New Zealander, Rabindra Prajapati, the Fishtail Air helicopter’s pilot, and Air Dynasty pilot Prajwol KC were injured. They are currently being treated at Nepal Mediciti Hospital in Kathmandu.

The collision occurred at around 8:12am as both helicopters were attempting to land at a helipad in Pheriche, a popular stop for trekkers and climbers at an altitude of approximately 4,371 metres in Solukhumbu district.

According to a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, one of the helicopters, an AS350 with registration number 9N-AOD, operated by Air Dynasty Heli Service Pvt Ltd, had flown from Lukla Airport to a helipad in Solukhumbu on a cargo flight.

The other helicopter, an AS350 with registration number 9N-AJR, operated by Fishtail Air Pvt Ltd, had taken off from Gorakshep in Solukhumbu carrying two foreign nationals.

A video circulating widely on social media shows the Fishtail Air helicopter making a rapid descent despite warnings from ground staff. As it approached the helipad, it collided with the Air Dynasty helicopter, which was attempting to land from the opposite direction. The rotor blades of the Air Dynasty helicopter struck the passenger compartment windows of the Fishtail Air chopper when both helicopters were still 2–3 metres above the ground.

The exact cause of the collision is yet to be ascertained.

“Preliminary reports suggest miscommunication between the pilots, as the area is outside the coverage of Lukla Airport's air traffic control tower and pilots have to communicate with each other,” said Mukesh Dangol, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. “We are recording the statement of the injured pilot.” He said an investigation commission would establish what happened.

But for experienced pilots and aviation veterans, the collision has raised questions about how two helicopters could collide mid-air while approaching a landing site in apparently clear weather.

Gunjaman Lama, a retired brigadier general of the Nepal Army with extensive experience flying VIPs and VVIPs in the army's Super Puma helicopter, described the accident as something that should not have happened under the circumstances.

“In clear weather, in a large valley, with flights operating under visual flight rules, such a collision should be impossible,” he said. “It's pure negligence.”

Helicopters have considerable manoeuvrability because their rotor systems allow them to hover, change direction and move sideways and backwards, unlike fixed-wing aircraft.

“Besides, the pilots and ground staff know how many helicopters are flying and their location,” Lama said. “This is a serious case, and the root cause needs to be identified to prevent such accidents in the future.”

Retired Nepal Army Colonel and former pilot Pratigya Rana described Tuesday's collision as an unfortunate incident. Based on the visuals circulating on social media, he said, two possible factors could have contributed to the accident: sun glare and miscommunication between the pilots.

“Both pilots could have been disoriented by the sun glare early in the morning,” Rana said. “It is one of the possibilities, which the recorded statement of the pilot may help establish.”

Another possibility, he said, was a communication lapse between the two pilots. “Otherwise, this kind of crash is not possible.”

Sun glare has figured in previous helicopter accident investigations in Nepal. In the official investigation into the June 2015 Mountain Air helicopter crash involving an Ecureuil AS350 (9N-AJP), civil aviation officials suspected that glare from the sun had blinded the pilot, causing the aircraft to strike a high-tension power line.

The experts ruled out competition among helicopter operators to carry passengers during peak travel periods as a likely explanation for Tuesday's collision, saying flights in the Everest region are subject to restrictions and several procedures.

An $8,000 Everest helicopter sightseeing tour from Kathmandu can accommodate up to four people as far as Lukla.

However, only two passengers can fly from Lukla and land at Kala Patthar, at 5,644 metres, just below the Everest Base Camp, which lies at 5,364 metres.

Helicopters are permitted to fly over the base camp but are not allowed to land there. They can, however, carry four passengers on the return flight.

Local communities have also complained that helicopter operators pick up trekkers on their return journeys, depriving local people of employment opportunities like guides, porters, etc. A trek to the Everest Base Camp typically takes around 14 days.

Tuesday's accident comes as another blow to Nepal's aviation safety record, at a time when the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, the country's aviation regulator, has been attempting to introduce safety reforms but struggling to implement them. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is scheduled to conduct a comprehensive ICAO Coordination Validation Mission (ICVM), also called safety audit, in Nepal from May 5 to May 12, 2027.

At least 43 helicopter crashes, 23 of them fatal, have occurred across the country since 1979. Eight helicopters have crashed in the Everest region, five of them involving fatalities.

In July 2023, a Manang Air helicopter crashed in the Lamajura area of Solukhumbu district, killing all six people on board—five Mexican tourists from the same family (two men and three women) and Nepali pilot Captain Chet Bahadur Gurung.

The latest collision also comes amid longstanding tensions between helicopter operators and local communities over the growing number of flights in the Everest region, one of the world's most iconic mountain destinations.

On December 12, 2025, the local municipality and the Sagarmatha National Park, home to Mount Everest, which stands at 8,848.86 metres, issued directives restricting helicopter flights over the park for sightseeing, while exempting rescue operations. The restrictions were scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2026.

Local youth clubs subsequently posted photographs on social media showing them planting flags and staking claims over helipads and other areas where helicopters frequently land. They also issued indirect threats to helicopter companies.

Local communities argue that the increasing number of helicopter flights in the national park has reached unsustainable levels and threatens the fragile ecosystem and tranquillity of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The noise from low-flying helicopters disturbs not only schools and offices in the region but also wildlife, which depends on the park's relatively undisturbed natural environment.

The tourism industry, meanwhile, has warned that a ban on Everest sightseeing flights could damage Nepal's high-end tourism market. An Everest sightseeing tour is a lifelong dream for many wealthy travellers who have the money but not the time to trek to the mountain.

The dispute remains unresolved.

Helicopter operators, however, already face restrictions on flights in the region.

Helicopters in Nepal generally operate in challenging terrain, and flights conducted during adverse weather conditions are particularly risky. Tuesday's collision, however, occurred in apparently clear weather, making the investigation into pilot coordination, communication and landing procedures particularly important.