Two helicopters collide near Everest base camp, killing Indian national

An Indian tourist has died after two helicopters collided while attempting to land near Mount Everest base camp in Nepal, officials told the BBC.

Verified footage showed the blades of the two aircraft clipping each other as they came in to land at about 08:15 local time in Pheriche, about 12km (7 miles) south of the base camp.

Helicopter operator Fishtail Air named the victim as Vasanth Kumar Balaramudu, adding that another passenger and the pilot were injured and taken to Kathmandu.

A local official said the injured passenger was a New Zealand tourist.

The second helicopter, operated by Air Dynasty, was carrying cargo, and its sole crew member was unhurt, the company said.

A spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, Gyanendra Bhul, said: “It appears the accident happened when two helicopters… attempted to land at the same spot.”

Helicopters are widely used for transport in Nepal’s mountainous terrain, but rapidly changing weather and high altitude often make flying hazardous.