Helicopter Lands top Mount Everest

FlyByPC writes "The Eurcopter team has succeeded in landing a helicopter on Everest and returning safely to base, setting another ultimate aviation milestone -- for highest-altitude takeoff and landing. Interesting pictures of Lukla airfield, as well -- essentially a runway carved out of a mountainside."

Comments

Dead bodies too?

[spineboy]

Apparently Everest is littered with all of the people who've died up there. Roughly 25% of the people who atttempt to climb it have died somewhere along the route.

Re:Interesting "landing"

[wertarbyte]

This reminds me of an old sketch of the german tv show "Verstehen Sie Spaß?". It's a hidden camera show, where celebrities are tricked into a strange situations (you certainly know the concept). One of the greatest episodes featured Reinhold Messner, famous mountaineer and conservationist, climbing the Matterhorn. They put up a kiosk right beneath the top via helicopter, selling all kinds of kitsch and junk to visitors...a nightmare to Messner, who got into rage after his (well-informed) companion even wanted to buy some kind of firework "to celebrate the reaching of the top". The TV crew then lowered the shows host from a helicopter, resolving the delicate situation