How do you call a helicopter rescue in Nepal?

Call +977 1 4000 911. The line is answered 24 hours a day and the request goes straight to Nepali operators holding on-call rescue crews. Telephone rather than email or a form: helicopter rescue in Nepal is coordinated by voice, and where there is data but no voice signal a written request can be sent from this page instead. Have ready the casualty's location — a place name, a trekking stage or GPS coordinates — their symptoms, their approximate weight, and a callback number. Do not wait to arrange insurance or payment first: the operator lifts on the medical need and the paperwork is settled after the flight, never before it. Evacuation is possible on a longline where there is nowhere to land, and the practical limits are darkness, cloud and wind rather than altitude.

A helicopter working a high ridge line below Nilgiri.

Rescue and medevac

Altitude sickness, injury and illness in the high valleys need a helicopter the same day. Call the number below — you do not need an account, and there is nothing to fill in first.

Evacuation and medevac, day or night. No account, and nothing to fill in first.

24-hour rescue desk

+977 1 4000 911

Answered day and night. No account, and nothing to fill in first.

Call now

No voice signal?

Call if you have any signal at all — a voice line beats a form. Data often works where voice does not, and the request reaches our dispatch desk and every certified operator at the same moment.

Send a rescue request

If nothing can come

A rescue flight is never guaranteed. Your call goes to every certified rescue operator at once, and whether a helicopter comes depends on one being free, on the weather, on daylight and on where you are — the pilot in command makes that call. If nothing can reach you we will tell you straight away, so no time is lost before you try another service.

HeliSky Nepal arranges the flight; the certified operator flies it and is responsible for it.

While you wait

If this is altitude sickness, descend. Losing 500 m does more than anything else available to you, and a helicopter may not fly for hours.
Keep the casualty warm and still. Do not give food or drink if unconscious.
Mark a landing site if you safely can: flat, clear of loose debris, ideally 25 m across. Weigh down anything that could blow into the rotor.
Keep the phone on and charged. The crew will call this number.

What happens

From the call to the rotors

Rescue in Nepal is arranged by phone, and the reason is not tradition: a form cannot ask the follow-up question a dispatcher needs when someone is getting worse at 5,000 m.

You call
The rescue desk answers at any hour. We need where you are, what is wrong and a phone the crew can call back on — nothing else, and no account.
Every ready operator hears it at once
The request goes to the certified operators who keep crews and aircraft on standby, rather than down a list one at a time.
A crew accepts and calls you
They confirm the pickup and talk you through the landing site. The pilot makes the final call on whether the weather and the altitude allow the flight.
The operator's insurance covers the flight
We check that an operator's licence and insurance are both valid before they can take any work here. There is nothing for you to arrange in the air.

No voice signal

Data often works where voice does not

The SOS page is a single form on a page with nothing else on it. It reaches our dispatch desk and every certified operator at the same moment, and it needs no account. Use it only when you cannot get a call out — a voice line beats a form whenever there is signal.

Open the SOS page