|
Yakety Yak: Eurocopter Talks Back
Forget Airbus and Boeing: The best slanging match here involves two unlikely participants — Eurocopter and the Nepalese government.
May 14: Eurocopter test pilot Didier Delsalle takes off in a standard AS 350 B3 from a base camp at Lukla, Nepal, at 9,403 feet elevation and lands on the top of Mount Everest, at an elevation of 29,035 feet. Delsalle remains on the ground for two minutes as required by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.
May 15: Delsalle does it again, stating that the achievement was “sublimated by the magic of the place.” (Oxygen: check. —Ed.)
May 24: Eurocopter not only claims a record for the world’s highest helicopter landing but points out that the record cannot be surpassed until someone builds a bigger mountain. Eurocopter thanks the Nepalese government for its help.
June 3: Not so fast, says the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. A CAAN committee has investigated the matter and concluded that Eurocopter had never asked for permission to land on top of Everest; that such permission had consequently never been granted; and that the landing had accordingly never taken place, whatever the pilot might think. “Such imaginary publicity is regretted,” says the CAAN. And would you care for some rancid butter with that?
June 7: Eurocopter “regrets the misunderstanding with the CAAN” but we DID TOO land on top of Mount Everest, according to the test program that we filed with the CAAN in March 2005, and we have the video to prove it. So there.
back
to ShowNews home
|
