question: Why aren’t helicopters used to rescue hikers and remove bodies from Mt. Everest?
comment: The air in too thin and they can't fly that high up. They create lift by pushing air downwards. The higher up you go, the less air pressure you have, the less downward force a helicopter can make to fight gravity.
passages: In 2016 the increased use of helicopters was noted for increased efficiency and for hauling material over the deadly Khumbu icefall. In particular it was noted that flights saved icefall porters 80 trips but still increased commercial activity at Everest. After many Nepalis died in the icefall in 2014, the government had wanted helicopters to handle more transportation to Camp 1 but this was not possible because of the 2015 deaths and earthquake closing the mountain, so this was then implemented in 2016 (helicopters did prove instrumental in rescuing many people in 2015 though). That summer Bell tested the 412EPI, which conducted a series of tests including hovering at 18,000 feet and flying as high as 20,000 feet altitude near Mount Everest.
   BULLET::::- Three helicopter pilots working in rotation use a small helicopter to rescue about 100 people trapped at Mount Everest's Base Camp 1, at an altitude of 19,600 feet (5,974 meters), and Base Camp 2, at an altitude of 21,300 feet (6,492 meters), and carry them to safety in groups of four and five, completing the evacuation of the mountain in the aftermath of 25 April earthquake in Nepal. On 26 and 27 April combined, helicopters reportedly airlift 150 to 170 people off Mount Everest.
   BULLET::::- 7 November 2010 – A Eurocopter AS 350 of Fishtail Air crashed when it was on a rescue mission on the North ridge of Mount Amadablam at an elevation of 6,350 meters. A five-member investigation team was formed on 9 November 2010 and its started its investigation one day later. The final report stated that the main cause of the accident was the inability of pilots to notice and arrest the lateral drift of the chopper to its left due to lack of ground reference until the main rotors came into contact. The accident was covered by the Swiss documentary "The mountain rescuers in the Himalayas".
   Her team had had to use the south side because the Chinese had denied them a permit to climb. Ultimately, the Chinese refusal may have been beneficial to Nepalese interests, allowing the government to showcase improved local hospitals and provided the opportunity for a new hybrid aviation/mountaineering style, triggering discussions about helicopter use in the mountaineering world. National Geographic noted that a village festooned Wang with honours after she donated US$30,000 to the town's hospital. Wang won the International Mountaineer of the Year Award from the Nepal government in June 2014.
  
  Section::::Everest and aviation.:2016: Helicopter business increases.
   The largest single non-combat helicopter operation in history was the disaster management operation following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Hundreds of pilots were involved in airdrop and observation missions, making dozens of sorties a day for several months.
   Effective use of helicopter services for trauma depends on the ground responder's ability to determine whether the patient's condition warrants air medical transport. Protocols and training must be developed to ensure appropriate triage criteria are applied. Excessively stringent criteria can prevent rapid care and transport of trauma victims; relaxed criteria can result in the embarrassing and costly situation of transporting a patient by helicopter, only to have the patient discharged in good condition from the emergency department.
   A news release from III Marine Expeditionary Force, based in Okinawa, Japan stated that the chosen route, which may have been made because one or more of the injured was in need of urgent treatment, took the UH-1Y Huey helicopter for a brief period over unfamiliar terrain in unstable weather. The helicopter crashed in rugged terrain about 8 miles north of Charikot on a mission to evacuate casualties caused by the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.
  
  Section::::Aircraft.
   Nepal’s army, struggling with the aftermath of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit on 25 April, had deployed about 400 troops into rocky, forested terrain after the US helicopter was reported missing.
   During the Troubles, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) became adept at avoiding conventional, fixed roadblocks and patrols. To prevent predictable patterns, the patrols were deployed by helicopter, known as Eagle Patrols, and were then able to disrupt the IRA's ability to move personnel and arms. In the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq helicopters have been used as aerial supply trucks and troop transports to prevent exposure to ambushes set by the Iraqi insurgency.
  
  Due to the cost and complexity of training and support requirements, insurgent forces rarely have access to helicopters.
  
  Section::::Manufacturers.
   BULLET::::- 10 June – Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil 5Y-CDT of the Kenya Police crashes in the Ngong Forest. All six people on board are killed.
  
  BULLET::::- 21 December – Mil Mi-8 RA-27003, operating as United Nations Flight 544 is shot down by the Sudan People's Liberation Army in a friendly fire incident. The aircraft crashes at Likuangole, South Sudan, killing all five people on board.
  
  Section::::2013.
  
  BULLET::::- 16 January – Castle Air AgustaWestland AW109 G-CRST collides with a crane at Vauxhall, London and crashes. The pilot is killed, as is a pedestrian.
   Summit Helicopters was founded under the name "Fishtail Air" in 1997 in Kathmandu, Nepal. It carries out domestic chartered helicopter flights throughout Nepal and also international chartered flights to Bhutan and India. The airline often made headlines in local press after performing unusual yet successful rescue missions in the Himalayas.
  
  In 2010, Fishtail Air was part of a documentary by Swiss Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, titled "The mountain rescuers in the Himalayas" wherein the Swiss Airline and Fishtail Air were establishing a mountaineering rescue station in Lukla.
   BULLET::::- Ambulance Victoria – Up until the end of 2015, CHC provided two Bell 412EP helicopters for Air Ambulance and Search and Rescue duties.
  
  BULLET::::- Ambulance Service of New South Wales – CHC had provided up until 2017, three AW139s and two EC145 helicopters to supplement Ambulance NSW's eight contracted aeromedical helicopters. These were based at Wollongong, Sydney and Orange.
  
  BULLET::::- Snowy Hydro SouthCare Air Ambulance Service – CHC had operated a Bell 412 for emergency helicopter service, based in Symonston, Australian Capital Territory.
  
  Section::::CHC EMS and SAR services.:Norway.
   BULLET::::- 1 April – Eurocopter AS332L2 Super Puma Mk 2 G-REDL of Bond Offshore Helicopters suffers a mechanical failure and crashes into the North Sea off the coast of Aberdeenshire. All sixteen people on board are killed.
  
  BULLET::::- 3 May – Mil Mi-35 EV 08114 of the Venezuelan Army crashes in Táchira province. All eighteen people on board are killed.
  
  BULLET::::- 3 July – A Pakistan Army Mil Mi-17 helicopter crashed in Khyber Pass, Pakistan, killing all 41 people on board.
  
  Section::::2010.
   BULLET::::- 23 August – A CHC Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma Mk 2 crashed into the sea 2 nm from Sumburgh in the Shetland Islands, Scotland while en route from Borgsten Dolphin oil platform. The accident killed four of the passengers; 12 other passengers and two crew were rescued.
  
  BULLET::::- 29 November – Bond Air Services Eurocopter EC135-T2+ crashes onto the roof of a pub in Glasgow. All three people on board are killed, as are ten people in the pub.
  
  Section::::2014.
   Section::::Accidents and incidents.
  
  BULLET::::- 12 November 2001 – A Eurocopter AS 350 of Fishtail Air crashed into Rara Lake carrying Princess Prekshya of Nepal. She and two other passengers as well as the pilot died in the crash.
   Listed are rescue problems encountered; wrong vectors, too many persons on communication channels, too short of rescue cable, too slow of hoist speed, no forward firing weapons, jammed guns, loss of ICC, too many strobe lights, missiles fired, no forest penetrator aboard – use sling with tie down chain, broken hoist cable, farmers - enemy trap, lost rescue swimmer, hoist stopped below helo, lack of night flares, close artillery fire - swimmer receive concussion, co-pilot empty fired brass hitting pilot in face and burning, parachute of downed pilot caught in wind, chute drags pilot below surface, red beacon light – soup can blocked view from below, rescuee dawning the horse collar backwards.
   The use of an AirStair-equipped helicopter removes the need to access a tower from the ground. This has many advantages, as ground access often requires off-road travel across difficult terrain (mountains, rivers, farm crops, etc.). Furthermore, aerial access limits the amount of climbing required, with its inherent potential for fatigue and injury. With no land vehicles required, significant financial gains can be realized, as well as further safety increases due to the hazards of traveling by off-road vehicles being eliminated.
  
  Hydro One currently has two AirStairs deployed across the province from April to September.
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Hydro One
   In 2011, Jillian Skinner, the NSW Minister for Health, commissioned a strategic review of the NSW Ambulance Service, including its aeromedical operations. Ernst & Young were engaged to assist with the review; and delivered a final report with 56 recommendations that were released for public comment from December 2012 to mid March 2013. Following consideration of the 73 submissions received, and further consultation with clinical and aviation experts, in 2013 the NSW Government released the "Reform Plan for Aeromedical (Rotary Wing) Retrieval Services in NSW". Along with other reforms, two key issues impact the ongoing operations of the WLSHRS:
   Other nations have also made moves toward helicopter bombing, but have not put it into practice. The Soviet Union qualified both the Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-24 to use members of the FAB general-purpose bomb family. It is possible these aircraft may have been put into service in this role by the armed forces of Sudan and Sri Lanka.
   BULLET::::- G-NWPS – Eurocopter EC135 T.1 1998
  
  BULLET::::- G-SCHZ – Eurocopter AS355 Ecureuil 2 1999
  
  Section::::Accidents and incidents.
  
  Although British International Helicopter Services Ltd. (including its time under the Veritair banner) has suffered no accidents since its inception in May 2000, the following events were experienced by its predecessors:
  
  BULLET::::- 16 July 1983
   In some jurisdictions, cost is a major consideration, and the presence of dedicated air ambulances is simply not practical. In these cases, the aircraft may be operated by another government or quasi-government agency and made available to EMS for air ambulance service when required. In southern New South Wales, Australia, the helicopter that responds as an air ambulance is actually operated by the local hydroelectric utility, with the New South Wales Ambulance Service providing paramedics, as required. In some cases, local EMS provides the flight paramedic to the aircraft operator as-needed. In the case of the Los Angeles County Fire Department the helicopters are brush fire choppers also configured as air ambulances with a paramedic provided from whichever fire department rescue unit has responded.
   The Ministry of Social Affairs evaluated the helicopter ambulance service after a year. They carried out 216 missions, of which the commission found that five instances where the air ambulance had been decisive to rescue the person's life and avoid permanent injury. They concluded that the helicopter was profitable for society, but did not find it to be optimal use of limited resources in the health sector. It concluded that a service would only be efficient if located on-site at a hospital with quick scrambling of anesthesiologist, where it was well-coordinated with ground ambulance services and emergency communications, and in densely populated areas.
   A government commission which published its results in 1977 considered the possibility for a helicopter-based air ambulance service. They concluded that although there could be benefits with a service, the cost would have to weighed up with other health activities. The commission also commented on that the helicopters would lay hold on a large number of physicians.
   Three of the expeditions of this company were filmed in the television show "" between 2006 and 2009. In 2013, David Tait achieved his fifth Mount Everest summiting with a Himex team. (see also List of Mount Everest summiters by number of times to the summit)
  
  Brice has pushed for many years to use helicopters to fly gear over the Khumbu Icefall to the Nepal-side Camp I to enhance safety. In the aftermath of the 2015 Nepal earthquakes Himex pulled out from summiting Everest that season.
   Eurocopter suggested that a production H³ application could appear as soon as 2020. The company had also previously expressed an interest in offering an H³ technology based solution for the United States' Future Vertical Lift program, with EADS North America submitting bid to build a technology demonstrator under the US Army's Joint Multi Role (JMR) program, but later withdrew due to cost and because Eurocopter might have to transfer X³ intellectual property to the US, and Eurocopter chose to focus on the Armed Aerial Scout instead. Ultimately the company was not downselected for the JMR effort, and the AAS program was cancelled.
  