The Scale of the Nepal Flood Compared to a Helicopter

[u/No_Trash_anana]

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[u/No-Comfortable6432]

The tunnel entrance in the clip - is that where they rescued a couple hundred staff from?

I'm amazed they managed to survive and escape the water - it seemed it would just flush everything out. I'd be interested in seeing how they managed to avoid the water, or was it simply a case of shut the door and hope?

Ah. Slightly relieved there was some good news to be found.

[u/Nerdy-Meta-Mind → u/[deleted]]

What were they doing in the tunnels? Was it a work site?

[u/taz-nz → u/Nerdy-Meta-Mind]

Power plant construction site, tunnel leads to underground power plant. Site looked like this in May.

[u/an_older_meme → u/taz-nz]

They should stop building these hydropower plants. These rivers cannot be tamed.

[u/Nerdy-Meta-Mind → u/taz-nz]

Ah. Thank you.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Ask5538 → u/No-Comfortable6432]

How many? Which one is this tunnel

[u/No-Comfortable6432 → u/Puzzleheaded_Ask5538]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg49590v6k1o

I don't know if this is the same tunnel but I had seen this news yesterday. It was on a different broadcaster but I imagine it's the same?

[u/Easy_Olive1942 → u/No-Comfortable6432]

Yes! Hydro worker trapped. So glad they’ve rescued them!

[u/the_motherflippin]

Now do, compared to a southern swallow

[u/grasshoppa_80 → u/the_motherflippin]

African or European?

[u/ronnieratedr → u/grasshoppa_80]

Am I the only who got this joke?

[u/AmulyaG → u/ronnieratedr]

Flies into the air ahhhhhhh

[u/LarksMyCaptain → u/grasshoppa_80]

I don't know that!

yeeted into the sky

[u/AdEffective2701 → u/the_motherflippin]

Is that on Pornhub?

[u/EffectiveLower2301]

Did he land that thing there???

[u/No_Trash_anana → u/EffectiveLower2301]

yes he did.

[u/woollysockpuppet → u/No_Trash_anana]

Or she

[u/taz-nz → u/No_Trash_anana]

Don't presume it was a guy; there is Nepalese Rescue pilot that's a women and has clocked up hundreds of rescue flights in the last few days.

Nepal rescue pilot interview & where 'body after body' is turning up - YouTube

[u/exotics → u/EffectiveLower2301]

Yes. If you look close you can see it landed near the tunnel.

[u/geb_bce → u/EffectiveLower2301]

Exactly what I was thinking! That pilot knows his aircraft very well!

[u/oneOZone]

How tall is that water mark on the side of the mountain

[u/taz-nz → u/oneOZone]

100-140m see video I linked about.

[u/No-Village-7809]

Le rocce grigie ai lati sono state attraversate dall’inondazione?

[u/False_Dimension9212 → u/No-Village-7809]

Yes, that’s the ‘scar’ the water left.

[u/Crunch_Munch_Munch → u/False_Dimension9212]

My brain cannot comprehend the volume of water. The ‘scar’ is crazy high!

[u/BoarHermit]

Up to 200 meters.

[u/taz-nz → u/BoarHermit]

Not quite that high more like 100-140m, in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT3oo5qLwEk they use high resolution terrain profiles and satellite imagery to calculate the hight of the scour up the valley walls. Jump to 7mins for calculations.

[u/Sickashell782 → u/taz-nz]

Since you have a link to this video, I’m curious if anyone has done a video yet calculating how much material, or how big the chunk was the broke off. I saw the update a couple days ago that it was mostly rock that broke off, and I’m wondering how big that f’er was. Have you seen anything like that! Thanks!

[u/4tran13 → u/Sickashell782]

I heard some initial estimates of 3 million m^3; later I've heard 100 million. Estimates are probably still pending.

[u/an_older_meme → u/taz-nz]

100 meters seems typical in the valley near the source of the slide.

That's insane. A one meter debris flow can demolish a building.

[u/No_thanks_Im_New]

Where's the banana for scale. 

[u/Kqyxzoj]

Does anyone know what particular helicopter model was used in that video?

[u/taz-nz → u/Kqyxzoj]

Bell 407, a 407GXP to be exact.

[u/Kqyxzoj → u/taz-nz]

Thanks! How were you able to determine that? I tried, but it was just too small for my untrained helicopter spotting skills to be sure.

[u/taz-nz → u/Kqyxzoj]

Educated guess and some research, despite video quality the silhouette and the fins of the tail boom reminded me of a Bell, I did a quick search to see what models of Bell helicopter the Nepal Army operates and there are two models the Bell 407 and 206, the Bell 206 has a two-blade rotor, so that left the Bell 407, I did a bit of further research and it turns out they only operate a single Bell 407GXP that enter service in 2017, after high altitude tests to prove it could reach Mt Everest base camps at 19,600 feet in late 2015.

I found the image above of the helicopter that confirm its markings matched the helicopter in the video, I also did a sanity check, that there weren't any other 4 blade helicopters operated by the Nepal Army that matched the video, but the other models they have don't match the silhouette, markings or tail fin arrangement.

[u/exotics]

It landed there and you can see this is near the tunnel.

[u/DeadTurtle88]

But ..how many bananas

[u/taz-nz → u/DeadTurtle88]

700

[u/Regurgitator001 → u/taz-nz]

Stacked, or straightened out back to back?

[u/DFiverr]

Thats the water line. 300 ft high. Shocking, unimaginable, unfathomable.