Priya Adhikari hadn’t slept for days.
She is 40 years old and the first woman to become a helicopter captain in Nepal. She started as a cabin crew member, fell in love with the mountains, and ended up piloting through the narrowest passes of the Himalayas. Since August 26, when floods and landslides devastated the border between Nepal and Tibet, she hasn’t stopped: nearly 100 rescue missions in barely six or seven days, most of them over Timure, in Rasuwa District, one of the hardest-hit areas.
Alongside 20 other helicopters, Adhikari has flown over villages that no longer exist and seen things that are not easily forgotten. The disaster has already left more than 1.000 dead and thousands missing between the two countries. She told Anderson Cooper of CNN about it with the voice of someone who still hasn’t had time to be afraid: people are waiting, and the helicopter’s fuel waits for no one.
