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.
24 hours · no account · no form first
Emergency evacuation, Nepal
Helicopter rescue and medevac in Nepal
Altitude sickness, injury or illness high up needs a helicopter the same day. Call the number below — no account, nothing to fill in first.
Answered 24 hVoice firstPay after the flight
Evacuation and medevac, day or night. No account, and nothing to fill in first.
24-hour rescue desk
+977 97 0401 9967
Answered day and night. No account, and nothing to fill in first.
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 requestIf 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.
Go Heli Nepal arranges the flight; the certified operator flies it and is responsible for it.
- Where the casualty is
- What is wrong
- Approximate weight
- A callback number
- Nothing else — and no account
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.
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 pageQuestions
What a helicopter rescue in Nepal costs, and who pays
How much does a helicopter rescue in Nepal cost?
A helicopter evacuation from the Everest region costs roughly US$3,000 to US$8,000, and more where a longline and a specialist crew are needed. The figure depends on flight time, the altitude of the pickup and whether a second aircraft is required. Nothing is paid before the flight: the operator lifts on the medical need and the billing is settled afterwards, usually directly with your insurer.
Who pays for a helicopter evacuation in Nepal?
Travel insurance pays for most helicopter evacuations in Nepal, provided the policy covers helicopter evacuation and permits trekking at the altitude where you were. Many standard policies exclude trekking above 4,000 m, which is below Everest Base Camp at 5,364 m, and others cap evacuation well under the real cost. Where cover does not apply, the bill falls to the patient.
How quickly can a rescue helicopter reach the Everest region?
Once a crew accepts a rescue task, flying time from Kathmandu into the Khumbu is roughly one hour. The delay is rarely the flight itself — it is daylight, cloud and wind. Nepali rescue helicopters fly in visual conditions, so a request made in the afternoon, in fog, or after dark commonly waits for the next flyable window.
Can a helicopter reach you if there is nowhere to land?
Yes, on a longline. Where there is no landable surface, a crew can extract a casualty on a line beneath the aircraft, and above roughly 6,000 m that is the only option because a conventional helicopter cannot land there. Longline work needs specific crews and equipment that not every operator holds, so descending even a few hundred metres on foot often turns an impossible retrieval into a straightforward one.
Do you need an account or a booking to call a helicopter rescue?
No. The rescue line +977 97 0401 9967 is answered 24 hours a day with no account, no form and no prior booking. Have the casualty's location, their symptoms, their approximate weight and a callback number ready. If you have data but no voice signal, a written request can be sent from the SOS page instead.
Is helicopter rescue in Nepal limited by altitude?
Altitude limits the method rather than the possibility. Landings become impossible above about 6,000 m, where longline extraction takes over, and thinner air reduces how much weight an aircraft can lift at any given height. In practice the binding constraints on a Nepali rescue flight are darkness, cloud and wind rather than altitude itself.
Researching before a trek rather than calling now? The full breakdown is in what a helicopter rescue on Everest costs, and the cover that pays for it is in the insurance clause that voids your evacuation. To check one place in particular — which bases can reach where you are going, how long the flying is and the least it could cost.