Two helicopters collided while landing at the Pheriche helipad in Nepal's Mount Everest region on November 3, 2026, killing one passenger and injuring three people, according to the Solukhumbu District Police Office. The victim was a 47-year-old Indian national from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The injured were a New Zealand citizen of Indian origin who was traveling on the same helicopter as the victim, and the pilots of both aircraft. Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority said both aircraft were AS350 single-engine helicopters: the Air Dynasty Heli Service helicopter, registered 9N-AOD, had arrived from Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla carrying no passengers, while the Fishtail Air helicopter, registered 9N-AJR, was arriving from Gorakshep with two foreign passengers on board. The report said the helicopters' rotors struck during landing.
No fire broke out after the impact, and the cause remained undetermined with an investigation underway. The three injured people were evacuated by air for medical treatment, and the victim's body was flown to Lukla ahead of a planned transfer to Kathmandu for a post-mortem examination. Pheriche sits at approximately 4,200 meters above sea level along the main trekking route to Everest base camp, and with no road access to much of the Khumbu region, helicopters provide passenger transfers, deliver supplies, and evacuate trekkers suffering from altitude sickness or exhaustion. The report also noted longstanding concerns over helicopter safety in Nepal, citing a high-level government committee report published in late 2025 that recorded 40 helicopter crashes and 92 fatalities over 63 years of helicopter operations in the country and concluded that efforts to strengthen safety oversight had fallen short of expectations.