The Only Helicopter Ever to Land on the Summit of Everest — and Why Nobody Has Done It Since

Flights & Access In May 2005 a French test pilot set his skids on the roof of the world for 3 minutes and 50 seconds; twenty-one years later, the record still stands. By Anjali Shrestha · Jul 18, 2026 Read the full story

At 07:08 on the morning of 14 May 2005, a small helicopter did something most people in aviation considered impossible: it set its skids down on the summit of Mount Everest, 8,848 metres above sea level. The pilot, a French former fighter pilot named Didier… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

The flight everyone said couldn't be done

Delsalle was a test pilot for Eurocopter, and his machine was, remarkably, an almost standard AS350 B3 "Squirrel" — the same type that flies rescue missions in Nepal to this day. His team stripped about 120 kg from it, including the passenger seats, to extend… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

Why the summit air defeats helicopters

And the air is the whole problem. At 8,848 metres, air density is only about a third of what it is at sea level — so the rotor blades have far less to bite into and the engine far less oxygen to burn. Then there is the wind: the summit sits in the jet… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

What helicopters really do on Everest today

Delsalle's flight was an empty, stripped aircraft flown by a factory test pilot in a rare weather window. Day-to-day Himalayan flying happens much lower — but it has its own records. On 21 May 2013, Italian pilot Maurizio Folini, flying the same AS350 B3… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

Fly the same skies, a little lower

The good news: you can legally fly the same skies Delsalle did — just a little lower. An Everest Base Camp helicopter tour lands at Kala Patthar (5,545 m) for a sunrise view of the summit pyramid, and many trekkers now walk in and fly out of the Khumbu by… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

Everest Base Camp Helicopter Tour — 1 Day

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