Helicopter evacuation saves lives in Nepal every season. It has also attracted a well-documented fraud problem. Both things are true, and a traveller needs to understand both.
When an evacuation is warranted
Altitude illness that is not improving with descent, or that has progressed to high-altitude pulmonary or cerebral oedema. Serious injury. A medical emergency where ground evacuation would take too long or is not possible.
The treatment for altitude illness is descent, and descent on foot is often both possible and sufficient. A helicopter is what you use when walking down is not safe, not fast enough, or not physically possible.
How the process works
- Call. Reach us, your trek operator, or your insurer’s assistance line. Give the position, the symptoms, how long they have lasted, and the patient’s approximate weight.
- Assessment. Where there is an aid post nearby, such as the Himalayan Rescue Association at Pheriche or Manang, get the patient seen. A doctor’s assessment changes what we can tell an insurer and is the single most useful thing you can do.
- Authorisation. Your insurer issues a guarantee of payment. We can launch before this arrives when the situation warrants it, but the sooner we have it, the less argument there is afterwards.
- Launch. In flyable weather and daylight, typically within one to two hours of confirmation. At night or in cloud, not at all.
- Destination. Usually Kathmandu, to a hospital equipped for the condition. Sometimes a lower village first, when the priority is simply to get the patient down.
What it costs
An evacuation from the Everest region to Kathmandu is a charter flight, and the cost reflects the aircraft, the altitude and the urgency. Our published route prices give you the honest order of magnitude. An evacuation booked in a crisis should not cost several times the published figure for the same journey, and if you are quoted that, something is wrong.
The fraud problem, stated plainly
Nepal has had a serious and documented problem with evacuation fraud. The pattern involves trekkers being encouraged to take unnecessary flights, multiple passengers being billed as separate full charters for one aircraft, and insurers being invoiced for flights that did not happen.
How to protect yourself:
- Do not accept a helicopter for mild symptoms that are improving with descent.
- Be wary if a lodge or guide is unusually keen to call one, particularly for a whole group.
- Ask to see the aircraft manifest. If four trekkers flew in one machine, four separate full-charter invoices are not legitimate.
- Keep your own record: time of the call, who assessed the patient, who was on board, where you landed.
- Get a written quote before the flight where the situation allows it.
Insurance
Check your policy before you travel, and check three things specifically: that helicopter evacuation is included, the altitude limit written into the policy, and whether trekking above a certain height requires a supplement. A policy that stops at four thousand metres is no use on the Everest Base Camp trek.
Carry the policy number and the assistance line number on paper as well as on your phone. Phones run out of battery at exactly the wrong moment.
What we will and will not do
We will fly before the paperwork is complete when someone is genuinely in trouble. We will bill an insurer directly where they issue a guarantee. We will give you a manifest and an honest invoice for the flight that actually happened.
We will not recommend an evacuation for someone who should walk down, and we will not invoice five people for five aircraft when they travelled in one.