luckla plane crashes - 14 killed

lg123

http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0824/nepal.html

very sad. this has to be the scariest flight in the world

Cookie_Monster

what has this got to do with Outdoor pursuits?

Can it be shunted off to Aviation & Aircraft Mods?

Sev

Unfortunately it's also the best flight in the world. You fly close over mountain tops with towering snow capped peaks overhead, it's pretty awesome.

The record of accidents in the past 10 years on the Lukla Airport wikipedia entry isn't very confidence inspiring.

Sev

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

what has this got to do with Outdoor pursuits?

Can it be shunted off to Aviation & Aircraft Mods?

It's the flight you take to Lukla. The starting point for the trekking in the Everest himalayas. Many outdoor enthusiasts would be familiar with it, or have taken the flight themselves.

Evil Phil

What Sev said, Luckla is kind of the gateway to the mountains in Nepal.

Sev

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0925/breaking10.html

Hugh_C

Actually the flight crashed near Kathmandu, nowhere near Lukla. It was an Everest sightseeing flight

I've flown into Lukla and was one of the most exciting flights I've ever experiencd - the last 5 minutes into Lukla are pretty special especially when you see the pilot blessing himself the first 30 seconds out of Lukla are terrifying, you're basically flying off the edge of a cliff.

I'm doing a journal about the Everest trek, adding to it bit by bit.

Sev

Hugh_C wrote: »

the last 5 minutes into Lukla are pretty special especially when you see the pilot blessing himself

That reminds me of the time I took a local bus back up the "Death road" from Coiroico (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yungas_Road)

An experience almost on par with flying into Lukla.

All of us crammed into a little minivan. I had a window seat on the right hand side, so I could see how much road there was between us and the void. The driver made a point of blessing himself before he set off.

caped_crusader

Hugh_C wrote: »

Actually the flight crashed near Kathmandu, nowhere near Lukla. It was an Everest sightseeing flight

I've flown into Lukla and was one of the most exciting flights I've ever experiencd - the last 5 minutes into Lukla are pretty special especially when you see the pilot blessing himself the first 30 seconds out of Lukla are terrifying, you're basically flying off the edge of a cliff.

I'm doing a journal about the Everest trek, adding to it bit by bit.

I took that flight too and it was the most exciting (my opinion) / terrifying (my wife's opinion) flight ever!!

The door into the cockpit is open so you can see out the front window of the plane and also see the handheld GPS unit gaffa-taped to the centre console!!

Great memories.

Coeus

I have been to both although but the time I went to Bolivia (in 2008) they (with the help of the US) had built a new road back from the bottom of the Yungas Valley which we took. Yes the bike ride down was nerve wracking enough and bits where the sheer drops into the valley as the old road isnt very wide :eek:

The flight into Lukla is crazy considering they fly without radar. I was kinda glad I was sat at the back of the plane so I couldn't see how crazy the descent was as the plane certainly came with a steep angle. I was certainly glad when we landed. Everyone clapped in relief

Sev

Coeus wrote: »

I have been to both although but the time I went to Bolivia (in 2008) they (with the help of the US) had built a new road back from the bottom of the Yungas Valley which we took. Yes the bike ride down was nerve wracking enough and bits where the sheer drops into the valley as the old road isnt very wide :eek:

I did it in 2005 (before the bypass). Did you get to experience cycling with traffic pushing you to the cliff side? Or did the bypass eliminate all the traffic on the road?

This was a very unsettling thing, the vehicles are supposed to have right of way and you're supposed to pass, or let them pass on the inside, meaning you have to cycle close to the edge. There was a constant dilemma of whether to pass a truck or not, knowing that it may catch up with you later.

Coeus wrote: »

The flight into Lukla is crazy considering they fly without radar. I was kinda glad I was sat at the back of the plane so I couldn't see how crazy the descent was as the plane certainly came with a steep angle. I was certainly glad when we landed. Everyone clapped in relief

I was very well researched for my Lukla flight thanks to Google Earth (or whatever equivalent there was at the time), I darted to the front of the plane and knew what side of the plane to sit on to see Everest... I'm a man who likes his window seat. Had the camera ready so I could video the landing from the POV of the pilot.

A few days prior to that flight, I flew back from Lhasa straight over the heart of the Himalayas to Kathmandu. The plane was only about 1/8th full, meaning everybody had a window seat and you could freely move from one side of the plane to the other. From my window seat I could identify 4 of the 5 highest mountains in the world (Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, Kanchenjunga (India)) as well as Chomolhari (in Bhutan) and Ama Dablam.

I told myself afterwards that I would never need a window seat again, but then the Lukla flight topped it.

Coeus

Sev wrote: »

I did it in 2005 (before the bypass). Did you get to experience cycling with traffic pushing you to the cliff side? Or did the bypass eliminate all the traffic on the road?

Yep most of the traffic is taking the new main road now, I think on the day we went down 2 maybe 3 pickups came up against us. We did get down the road alot quicker and probably had the chance to pick up a bit more speed even on the parts with the sheer drops

As for the Lukla flight, I had planned to sit near the front but there were people more eager for those seats with alot bigger cameras. I wasn't too bothered, I'm not the world biggest photographer. Needless to say I saw nothing as everyone clambered for a view in front of me

What made the flight a bit nerve wracking for me was that Lukla airport had been closed for 2 days and it was still cloudy the morning we left Kathmandu airport. It was cloudy enough on the way up but was clear enough to land by the time we reached Lukla. 2 hours after we arrived the guides told us the airport closed and remained so for a further 2 days. The weather is so changeable in the part of the world, I can see how accidents happen

Sev

Same thing happened to me on the way home. We were stranded in Lukla for 4 days waiting for the weather to clear. We ended up missing our International flight home from Kathmandu because of it. Every day we woke up hoping for clear skies to be greeted by dense fog.

There was this big buzz of excitement though on the morning that the fog finally cleared and it was nice to see the convoy of planes roll in.

The queueing system for who got to get out first annoyed me very much. People who had been waiting longest to get their flight back to Kathmandu were at the back of the queue.

We were lucky though, I would rather be stranded in Lukla and miss my flight home than miss my flight to Lukla and not get to see EBC etc. It was early season, and I believe the dense fog had been there for a few days earlier before we arrived to. So I'm sure there were a lot more people waiting in Kathmandu than there were in Lukla.

Coeus

Sev wrote: »

We were lucky though, I would rather be stranded in Lukla and miss my flight home than miss my flight to Lukla and not get to see EBC etc. It was early season, and I believe the dense fog had been there for a few days earlier before we arrived to. So I'm sure there were a lot more people waiting in Kathmandu than there were in Lukla.

Thats for sure, we met people in Namche Bazaar who had to walk from Jiri and because of the bad weather and that was as far as they could go due to time contraints I guess. They got to see Everest but that was it.

We were blessed we got in and out without any delays, when we got back to Lukla everyone had been waiting 2 days to get out. The next morning it was clear and we were on one of the first flights out, confirming thats how things were done there.

I went in end Oct/early Nov and thought that it would be clear most days but the monsoon had lingered that year on the subcontinent and had a knock-on effect in the mountains...