AS350 B3 MT Everest Summit Landing Video... MUST SEE..!

[ChopperFAN]

Hey guys i came across this and thought you may like it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhYG-IgsRJ0

Its amazing how far we have come, that something so high can be visited by a chopper...:ok:

I wonder how he went with altitude sickness...? would the breathing gear stop this?

Anyhow Enjoy

Simon

[Aesir]

This subject has been discussed here:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=176079&highlight=everest

Still good video! Thanks for the heads up on that:ok:

[SilsoeSid]

Mmmmm?!...around the 2 min mark...the mountain behind looks an awful lot higher and an awful lot more like Everest !!

[Hughes500]

Silsoe Sid

At the 2 min mark the mountain in the foreground is Lhotse ( one of the 14 8000m peaks) the mountain in the background is Everest - climbed on them !

[SilsoeSid]

Thanks h500,

So the mountain being landed on is Lhotse and not Everest.
I heard this because they didn't manage to get permission or something?

It sounds better I suppose to say the aircraft landed on Everest rather than one of the lower peaks I suppose.

Is it a 'Truth and a Good Story' kind of thing?

SS

[Woolf]

Looks like this record has been recognised by the FAI so I would assume it DID land on Everest. :D (Even though the record is actually for the highest Take Off which I guess amounts to the same ....)

http://records.fai.org/rotorcraft/history.asp?id1=112&id2=80&id3=1&id4=2

Woolf

[Ioan]

No they did actually land on Everest - Lhotse is other big mountain next to it that's hardly ever climbed since everyone wants Everest first and foremost.

SilsoeSid's correct in that there were some problems getting permission to land there. Everest is considered by the Nepalese government to be a sacred mountain, with local names for it translating as 'Holy Mountain' and 'Head of the Sky'.
Eurocopter (who paid for the record attempt) applied to the Nepalese authorities to conduct a flight test in the area around Everest, which Nepal granted in the hope that in future rescue missions could be performed at a much higher altitude. The first the Nepalese government knew about the landing attempt was apparently when the team returned home a week later and held a press conference in Paris. What complicated it further was that the pilot had apparently made a written statement to say that he'd made an emergency landing on the south col (roughly 26,000' - 3000' below the summit) due to bad weather. As you can see though, the video clearly shows him landing on the summit.

In the end the FAI obviously went with the video

[SilsoeSid]

With no other evidence, ie footage from base camp looking at the Everest Summit, how do we know, apart from the word of the Pilot and Eurocopter that it was in fact Everest that was landed on and not a lower peak? Who benefits from this feat?

Strange that on Discovery channel etc they are able to film climbers near to the summit if not actually on the summit, yet for this record beating feat the only 'proof' is video taken from the underbelly of the aircraft itself.
Certainly for other records, for example those accepted by 'Guinness Records', independent adjudication is required even for something as simple as eating baked beans with a cocktail stick.

Having only landed at a mere 12,500 ft up Mt Kenya at Lake Alice (http://www.fishing.co.uk/article.php3?id=2003) in a Gazelle and also Grossglockner in Austria (http://www.peakware.com/peaks.html?pk=101) also at 12,500 ft in an Alouette 3 and knowing how the aircraft perform and handle at that height, I would be very interested in the same fields at over twice the height I experienced! :hmm:

Alistair Campbell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alastair_Campbell#Iraq_War) now at Eurocopter!? :suspect:

"In February 2003 he was a central figure in the "dodgy dossier" controversy."...etc"

[Ioan]

To be honest the points you raise about evidence are ones that I and many other climbers wondered about back when the claims first appeared. There were three real issues;
1. The short film made available on the internet had been heavily edited. You see the helicopter appraching what the caption calls the summit, but never see the helicopter actually land, from inside the cockpit.
2. A lot of climbers were doubtful that the mountain really was Everest, many confused by the changed perspective of being airborne rather than standing on the mountain. Others pointed out that none of the usual debris found on Everest was visible, for example used Oxygen bottles, or shreds of fabric.
3. Although climbers in the Everest area had observed a helicopter circling above the South Col (as was widely reported on climbing websites at the time), none saw the helicopter land. Something which could be considered unlikely considering the number of people on the mountain at the start of the Everest season.
Like I said, the Nepalese Civil Aviation Authority being unaware that the landing had taken place didn't help in matters either.

In the end most people were convinced when the FAI agreed that it was a world record. There was an official FAI observer present while the attempt took place, and the FAI had access to the full original copies of the tapes. With regards to rubbish on the summit, in some of the largier versions of the video discarded Oxygen bottles are visible. Indeed one was actually knocked by the underbody cowling during the second landing on the 15th. A later statement by the pilot and Eurocopter also pointed out that the reason nobody would have observed the landing was because that's how they wanted it. Everest is one of the most dangerous mountains in the world to climb, with a combination of altitude, exposure and remoteness killing many who try. The last thing they wanted to do was to try to land when there was a line of people waiting to summit. Waiting around even a few minutes at that kind of altitude can be dangerous, as any high altitude climber will tell you. There was also the possibility of triggering an avalanche, so in many respects Eurocopter should probably be commended for choosing a day when it was unlikely anyone could have reached the summit.

[Brilliant Stuff]

Call me gullible but I can not see Eurocopter pulling a hoax like this. Would they not have to keep to many people quiet?

As for not seeing any oxygen bottles and the like they might be covered under all that fresh snow?

[belly tank]

Eurocopter actually put out a DVD about the whole effort. called "The Mystery Chopper" if you ask you Eurocopter rep im sure they can get a copy for you, especially if your a customer!!

[maddmatt]

If you have not seen this it is definitely worth watching, EC AS350B setting a new world record in 2005

WXNXSvnCtKA

[belly tank]

Hi Maddmatt,

Im sure you've made a typo,ill play on it anyway :ok:.

EC or Airbus now as its known would have loved the old B model with blue blades to land up there, no need for any further development in the product :=.

Sorry couldn't resist. I actually got to meet Didier Delsalle at heli expo in Dallas in 2006, and he was just delightful.

Just need to look at VF posts in "top of the world" he's in the zone every day there.

[maddmatt]

OK Not with you yet... been a long day!

Is that A/C is an AS350 B3? I put EC because the H125 is the replacement of the AS350 or so I thought... :8