more stressed out by the weather. I knew that unless it cleared up, we could not send any choppers to rescue people injured by the avalanche," air traffic controller Koirala told AFP.
Pilot KC, who has been flying in the Everest region for 14 years, recalls starting the day with a prayer.
"My first priority was to get the injured out of base camp but people higher up the mountain were panicking because of all the aftershocks," the Manang Air pilot said.
He made dozens of trips that day to rescue terrified climbers desperate to get off the mountain, and to base camp to rescue the injured.
The frequency of aftershocks and the precarious terrain made landing even more difficult than usual, prompting the pilots to hover overhead and haul climbers up with ropes instead.
As rescuers carried dozens of quake victims into Lukla on sleeping bags doubling as stretchers, the tiny airport began to swell with hundreds of tourists haggling with airline officials for a ticket out.
Back in the control tower, Koirala and his colleagues embarked on the busiest week of their lives, closely monitoring the movement of planes and helicopters to ensure no accidents occurred mid-air.
"The whole week was a blur of flights -- the fact that there were so many more aircraft than usual in the air made the job very stressful," Koirala said.
Prior to the airport’s construction in 1964, porters would spend days walking from Kathmandu to Lukla, carrying hundreds of kilos of expedition gear on their backs.
Mountaineering legend Edmund Hillary originally planned to build the airfield on flat ground -- but local farmers refused to part with their fertile land.
Undeterred, he purchased a steep slope for $635 and recruited scores of Sherpa villagers to cut down scrub with knives.
The climber then plied villagers with local liquor and asked them to perform a foot-stomping traditional dance to flatten the land.
"A very festive mood prevailed and the earth received a most resounding thumping. Two days of this rather reduced the Sherpas’ enthusiasm for the dance but produced a firm and smooth surface for our airfield," Hillary wrote in his 1998 memoir, "View from the Summit".
As the number of climbers taking on the world’s highest mountain has boomed in recent decades, so traffic at Lukla airport -- which can be accessed by helicopter or small aircraft -- has increased.
Spring and autumn tourist seasons are the busiest, but closures are common since clear skies are essential for safe landing on the abbreviated clifftop runway.
Despite the challenges, some say its reputation for danger is undeserved.
"It’s unfair to call Lukla the most dangerous airport when there’s not much we can do about the terrain or the weather," said Koirala. "I have no doubt many lives were saved because this airport remained open after the quake."