CHENNAI: Two helicopters collided on Tuesday while trying to land just below Mount Everest’s base camp, killing Vasanth Kumar (47) of Chennai and injuring three others at Pheriche village, which is located at an altitude of 4,200 metres (13,780 feet), in Nepal’s Solukhumbu district.
Vasanth’s fellow passenger Shailesh Krishna Patel from New Zealand and Nepalese pilots Rabindra Prajapati (Fishtail Air) and Prajwal KC (Air Dynasty), who were injured in the incident, were taken to Kathmandu for treatment. According to the Nepal police, Vasanth’s mortal remains were sent to Kathmandu for a postmortem.
The two helicopters collided around 8.11 am (local time). Vasanth’s chopper took off from Lukla Airport, the gateway to Mt Everest. The base camp trek lasts up to two weeks and goes from the only airstrip in the area at Lukla to base camp located at 5,300 metres (17,380 feet).
Anxiety gripped Vasanth’s house on Peramballu Street in Old Washermenpet as shocking visuals of the chopper crash flashed across news channels. The family had been tense ever since they saw the news, as they knew Vasanth was in Nepal for a trek. A visit from revenue department officials confirmed what they had been dreading.
The cries of Vasanth’s elderly father Balaramanadu (80), mother Parameshwari (74) and maternal grandparents from their first-floor house could be heard on the street as the family struggled to come to terms with the news of the death. Vasanth’s annual trip to India was just a month away. TN, centre in touch with Nepal govt to bring back body to Chennai
Roughly 12,000 km away in Canada, Vasanth’s wife, Anal Chauhan, and their 12-year-old son, Vivaan, were also left in shock.
“Vasanth spoke to his parents on Monday morning and said he would call them after returning to Canada because the mobile network in Nepal was poor. That was the last time he spoke to them,” Kishore Kumar, a family friend, told TNIE.
Vasanth, the elder of Balaramanadu’s two sons, worked at a software company in Bengaluru before moving to Canada with his wife and son eight years ago. Anal worked at an oil and gas company there, while Vasanth was taking care of Vivaan, who is on the autism spectrum, Kishore said. Vasanth’s brother lives in the UK.
“The Embassy of India in Kathmandu expresses its deepest condolences on the unfortunate demise of an Indian national in an incident involving a collision between two helicopters in the Solukhumbu district of Nepal today,” the Indian Embassy in Nepal said in a post on X.
Speaking to TNIE, a Non-Resident Tamils Welfare Department official said the Tamil Nadu government and Indian authorities are in touch with the Nepal government to expedite bringing Vasanth’s mortal remains to Chennai.
The Everest base camp trek is popular during the fall season, right after the rainy season and before the harsh winter months. Aircraft were ferrying trekkers who had been hiking up to Everest base camp during Nepal’s popular trekking season.
Since there are no roads on Everest, helicopters are the only way to bring down trekkers who become sick or exhausted in the cold and high altitude. The accident brings back haunting memories for the families of the 85 people from TN who went missing in the devastating floods that hit Nepal in August this year.
(With agency inputs)
