Simrik Air helicopters on May 16 completed their search and rescue mission for the Bulgarian national Boyan Petrov, who had gone missing in an area of the Tibetan Autonomous Region in China since April 29.

 

Petrov is a veteran climber who has summited all 10 peaks over 8,000m. As the operation could be undertaken only by Nepali helicop­ters, with Chinese permits, Simrik had deployed its helicopters on an immediate basis on a special request of the Embassy of the Republic of Bulgaria in New Delhi.

 

After the first unsuccessful mis­sion on May 11-12 to spot Petrov, involving two helicopters, on May 16 one of Simrik Air's helicopters flew over the concerned regions for the second time, again to no avail. The search flight over Shishapangma, the Tibetan mountain Petrov was climb­ing, lasted for 1 hour and 30 minutes.

 

Further, Sherpas reached 10 meters closer to the summit. They found some of Petrov’s belongings, such as insulin, medical kit with some energy gels and his t-shirt at camp 3, but there was no sign of the climber. APEX BUREAU