Tourists flock to Nepal despite plane crashes
Another fatal aircraft accident at Lukla airport last weekend could see it labelled the world’s most dangerous
On Saturday, three people died after a light aircraft departing Lukla airport in Nepal strayed off the runway and collided with a parked helicopter, killing the pilot of the plane and two bystanders. It’s the latest accident in a string of several at the airport, which is the preferred destination of the increasing numbers of hikers wishing to ascend the slopes of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak. Officially known as Tenzing-Hillary airport — named after Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, the two men credited with the first summit of Everest — it has earned itself a reputation as being one of the world’s most difficult and dangerous airstrips. The landing strip, which measures a mere 527m, requires high levels of skill on the part of pilots who land there, who must first navigate the tricky terrain of the slopes of the Himalayas before landing. In fact, the conditions at the airport are so dangerous that pilots have to be especially certified before they can carry ...
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