Screengrab of a purported video showing two helicopters collide in Nepal

New Delhi:

Two helicopters collided while coming in to land at a high-altitude aviation hub in Nepal near Mount Everest, killing one, the police in the Himalayan nation said in a post on X. The dead has been identified as Vasanth Kumar Balaramaramadu, an Indian national, Kathmandu Post reported.

The incident which the police confirmed happened at a heliport in Solukhumbu, 250 km from the capital city Kathmandu, has gone viral on social media after a purported video of the collision surfaced. Daily News 365 could not independently confirm the authenticity of the video.

The video showed the rotors of the two helicopters hitting each other just before landing, sending the two aircraft crashing on the icy ground below.

Small helicopters are widely used in Nepal to transport tourists, climbers and supplies, as well as to carry out emergency evacuations. The country's challenging terrain and rapidly changing weather conditions make aviation operations particularly hazardous.

"One foreigner is dead on the spot, and another injured person has been taken to the hospital," Nabin Raja Budhathoki, in charge of Solukhumbu district police, told news agency AFP.

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains and attracts thousands of foreign climbers and trekkers every year.

Helicopter operations in the mountainous regions of Nepal and even neighbouring India are extremely challenging due to thin air in those altitudes.

Thinner air means the rotor blades have fewer air molecules to push against, generating significantly less lift and the engines struggle to draw in enough oxygen for efficient combustion in low-density air, reducing available power.

Just days ago, a helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from Badrinath in India's Uttarakhand, killing all six people on board including the pilot and five passengers. Badrinath is also a high-altitude area where the air is thin, making flying challenging.