Our Italian duo of rescue experts Capt. Piergiorgio Rosati and Capt. (Mountain climber) Simone Moro rescued the dead body of a Ukrainian man whose body has been stuck at Tengkangpoche about 18 months using the longline from our B3 helicopter.

The Ukrainian climber had been climbing the Tengkangpoche peak 18 months ago with his female friend who died on a fall while climbing very short of the summit. Her fall left him unroped with no harness. He couldn’t climb up or descend down. Sherpas and locals think he froze to death. His body was in a seated position ever since.

Simone Moro flew with Capt. Rosati on the longline to the body site on a 75 degree slope with a 2000m vertical drop below him while Rosati was hovering. The first day of the evacuation was carried out as Simone drilled the ice face and created an anchor for himself from where he could hang and work on taking the body out. The evacuation was successful only on the second day after rigorous drilling because of the vertical face of the slope at the height of 6380m.

Rescuer/pilot Simone Moro says ‘this extreme one of a kind rescue/evacuation is the highest rescue in the world by a longline on a vertical face.’

The mission was successful and they flew the body to Lukla and then to Kathmandu.

We send our humble condolences to the Ukrainian family.

Fishtail Air team is very grateful to Capt. Piergiorgio and Capt. Simone for carrying out the entire operation. Congratulations and best wishes for your future endeavors. Cheers!