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Tenzing Hillary Airport, Lukla, Nepal

The Lukla Kathmandu Flight, Nepal

Posted on June 7, 2012April 24, 2025

What do you do when you have trekked to Everest Base Camp and have finished writing about it? You get Low altitude sickness! And you want to throw tantrums. But on the brighter side I can still write about my Lukla-Kathmandu Flight. The Tenzing-Hillary Airport is probably one of the scariest in the world.

This is a Tara Air Plane and I asked someone if it was a new airline? He replied, “It was known as Yeti Air and they crashed a lot of planes. So they renamed themselves.” I also took a Tara Air flight, no wonder the candies still said Yeti Air.

If the weather goes bad the flights in and out of Lukla get cancelled. At the end of a trek you don’t want that to happen.

While we were waiting for the plane I saw the Everest climbers from Pheriche once again.

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The Climbers from Pheriche

It was the gentleman on the left who had said at Pheriche that even though he had climbed Everest it was not a happy day because his friend died.  At the Nest also someone pointed out an extremely thin gentleman and said in hushed tone, “He successfully climbed the Mount Everest.” The person was so unassuming that if it was not pointed out to me I could have never guessed.

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The Prayer Cloth tied to the Bag

It was interesting to see the Buddhist prayer cloth tied to his bag while they were waiting to board the Sita Air flight. Ours was the last flight in the morning and Deepak remarked at one point, “The weather is turning bad.” But after a while our flight arrived and for the first time on the entire trek Deepak raised both his hands in the air and shouted, “Yes.”

This time I knew if I would get close to the cockpit I could take pictures.

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The Cockpit of the Lukla Plane

This was the co-pilot with his set of gadgets to look after! And at one point the pilot took out a newspaper!

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When the Pilot Started Reading the Newspaper, Lukla Flight, Nepal

I have to say it was quite a site but soon after we landed at Kathmandu safe and sound.

And I will leave you with this video of a landing and take off from Lukla’s Tenzing-Hillary Airport.

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4 thoughts on “The Lukla Kathmandu Flight, Nepal”

  1. Niranjan says:
    June 8, 2012 at 4:20 pm

    That is indeed very scary. 🙂

    http://rajniranjandas.blogspot.in/2012/06/monsoon-magic.html

    Reply
  2. Mridula says:
    June 8, 2012 at 7:37 pm

    Niranjan but it saves 8-10 days of trekking from Jiri. 😀

    Reply
  3. Meena Menon says:
    June 11, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    Thts really a runway! It looks more like acre taking a reverse… Omigosh!

    Reply
    1. Mridula says:
      June 11, 2012 at 12:20 pm

      I know Meena 😀 It was a bit scary.

      Reply

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About Me

I am Mridula Dwivedi and I started this blog in 2005. It has been an amazing ride. I have visited 33 countries till date! I have worked with many tourism boards and prominent travel companies. My blog was featured on the BBC and the Guardian.

I did my Ph.D. from IIT Kanpur. I worked full time in academics till 2015! I quit my job as a professor, thinking I will take a break for one year, which turned into five.

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