Imagine you’re stuck on the slopes of Mount Everest. There’s no one to help you for frozen miles around, and you can’t move for some reason. Although you’ve sent a distress signal, the night has already fallen, and you’ve lost all hope. But then, out of the cold darkness, a beam of light blinds you. It’s a rescue helicopter, coming for you at last.

Despite weirdly popular opinion, this situation is possible. Tricky, granted, but rescue helicopters do fly at night. The myth about night flight operations might have appeared because of one fact: helicopters are really difficult to fly. And that’s a real problem that can preclude a chopper from flying at night. But it depends on many more factors than just poor visibility.

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