Eurocopter chopper did not land on Everest peak: CAAN

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has refuted reports that a Eurocopter chopper landed on the highest peak of the world, Mt. Everest, last month.

The CAAN refusal comes after over two weeks of news reports that pilot Didier Delsalle flew his Ecureuil/A-Star AS 350B3 chopper above 8,848 meters high and landed it atop Mt Everest on May 14th. As per International Aeronautical Federation provision, the chopper maintained the altitude in flight for two minutes (to claim the record) before flying back to Lukla base camp, reports had said.

Eurocopter is a leading European helicopter manufacturer.

Following reports about the chopper landing atop the world’s highest peak, CAAN had formed a committee to investigate the matter as the chopper had been “permitted only to make a test flight over the Everest region”.

“The helicopter had not demanded permission for landing on the peak,” CAAN said in a statement on Thursday, “and therefore no permit had been given and such imaginary publicity by the Eurocopter is regretted.”

Everest.net had quoted Delsalle as saying, just after the said successful flight, "To reach this mythical summit definitively seemed to be a dream; despite the obvious difficulties of the target to be reached, the aircraft demonstrated its capability to cope with the situation sublimated by the magic of the place.”

The manufacturing company had also claimed that Ecureuil has proven to be a multipurpose, reliable and comfortable aircraft, which can perform in extreme conditions. nepalnews.com pd June 03 05

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