Flying over 1960s Nepal

Across many of Nepal’s rural airports lies a shared legacy—shaped by a Swiss pilot who worked with UNDP’s Air Transport Support Project.

April 17, 2026

In the heady days of 1966, when Hippies were discovering the untouched beauty of Nepal, a Swiss pilot and flying instructor landed in Kathmandu as a United Nations adviser.

Captain Hardt Fuerer standing infront of the UNDP Pilatus Porter plane in one of his supply drops

Photo: UNDP Nepal

Over the next 20 years, Hardy Fuerer would crisscross across the Nepali skies on a single engine Pilatus aircraft, registered 9N-AAW, building and operating rural airstrips to connect some of Nepal’s most rural corners to the rest of the country and laying the foundations of rural aviation in Nepal.

Photograph of a blue twin-engine high-wing airplane on a tarmac with two people nearby. — The Pilatus Porter equipped with skis for a winter landing in remote areas Nepal.

Photo: Don Stirling

The livery on the plane’s tail was as unique as its pilot - a sky blue and white UN flag adjacent to Nepal’s non-rectangular red, white and blue flag. In the time he spent in Nepal, Hardy was involved in the design and construction of nearly 40 short takeoff and landing (STOL) airfields including those in Jomsom, Phaplu, Jumla and Juphal.

The tailwing of the 9N-AAW, Pilatus aircraft

Photo: United Nations

This was a Nepal where aviation infrastructure was only just starting, and where development in the areas of education, health, and energy was crawling forward. So rather than tourism, air transport served another, more essential function - saving the lives of the sick in villages where road access was either limited or too time-consuming.

The UNDP aviation team before a flight.

Photo: UNDP

Hardy was able to serve these settlements by transporting the United Nations’ and the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) project-based essential supplies and daily necessities like food, grains, sugar, medicine, building material for schools and hydropower projects, textbooks, as well as UN personnel. He also rescued numerous local villagers and mountaineers during emergencies.

Black-and-white photograph of a small propeller plane with several people on the tarmac. — Captain Hardy Fuerer returning after rescuing an injured person.

Photo: United Nations

Tri Ratna Manandhar, a former Director General of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN), met Hardy for the first time in 1982 at Nepalgunj airport, and recalls the latter’s immense contribution to Nepal’s air transport sector. Manandhar especially remembers the pride Hardy took in flying at high altitudes under extremely difficult infrastructural and poor weather conditions.

Captain Hardy Fuerer drops supplies in a remote village in Nepal

Photo: United Nations

“Whenever a new UN project was being implemented in a rural area, Hardy had to deliver aid material. For that, they would find at least 1,000 feet of level ground, prepare it, mark it, and then quickly establish a STOL airstrip,” said Manandhar, emphasizing Hardy’s vital role in expanding air connectivity in rural Nepali mountainous regions.

“Over time, the Nepali government upgraded some of these airstrips - initially built for UN project activities - into STOL airfields for commercial operations. Many of them are now functioning as domestic airports.”

Tri Ratna Manandhar, Former Director General of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN)

In 1971, the Government of Nepal hired Captain Hardy to assist the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) as an instructor pilot to train STOL pilots for Twin Otter and Pilatus Porter aircrafts. Hardy also went on to work with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to help strengthen Nepal’s aviation sector.