Indiaupdated 52m ago3 min read
MapHelicopter With Six, Including Five Pilgrims, Crashes Near Joshimath In Uttarakhand
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Six people aboard, including five pilgrims, crashed near Joshimath in Chamoli, Uttarakhand. The helicopter was en route from Badrinath to Dehradun.
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Crash Near Joshimath
A helicopter carrying six people, including five pilgrims, crashed in Uttarakhand near a village close to Joshimath in Chamoli district, and rescue teams were dispatched as the condition of those on board remained unclear. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said the helicopter had crashed near a village close to Joshimath in Chamoli district, and he said he was continuously monitoring the incident. The aircraft reportedly took off from the Hindu pilgrimage site of Badrinath on Friday afternoon before losing contact, and the incident happened amid reports of heavy rain and poor visibility.
The India Meteorological Department issued an orange alert for the area warning of thunderstorms, hail and strong winds, and the crash occurred as the region faced those weather conditions. UCADA said the helicopter lost communication when it was flying over Joshimath valley and that its tracking system could no longer track the helicopter, and it said the current location had not been ascertained yet.
Names, Search, and Weather
NDTV reported that five passengers from Bengaluru were on the chopper and that the pilot was from Delhi, and it said aerial search teams were deployed after smoke was later spotted near Chaien village in Joshimath.
NDTV identified the pilot as Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, a resident of Shalimar Bagh in West Delhi, and it listed passengers including Pratap B Ningaraju, 41, Arun Salunke, 44, Sudhir K, 49, HS Nataraj, 51, and Shankargouda VB, 39.
The Hindu said the six people on board Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd.’s helicopter were identified as Capt. Himanshu and five male passengers, and it said the chopper crashed into a hillside near the JP Power House near Marwari Bridge around 2.20 p.m.
UCADA said the helicopter bearing call sign VT-HCX, operating from Badrinath to Sahastradhara, Dehradun, took off at approximately 1.15 p.m. and went missing around 2.20 p.m., and it said as soon as the weather clears another rescue helicopter would be sent.
The Week said continued rainfall and dense cloud cover made it difficult to establish the helicopter’s location, while it also described bad weather as a suspected factor in the crash.
Grounded Fleet and Next Steps
UCADA said that as a precautionary measure, the entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd. has been grounded, and it said the helicopter’s current location had not been traced yet.
The Hindu said teams of the Chamoli administration, police, SDRF, Army and ITBP had been dispatched to the site for relief and rescue operations, while it also said there was no immediate confirmation of casualties.
Dhami said in a post on X that a joint rescue operation was being conducted by the district administration, the Disaster Management Department, and the SDRF, and he said he had issued instructions to ensure critically injured people were immediately airlifted to a higher-level medical facility.
NDTV said the district administration launched a search operation after the helicopter was initially reported missing, and it said additional helicopters were pressed into service for aerial surveillance and search operations.
BBC said the cause of the crash was also not yet known, and it said the incident happened amid reports of heavy rain and poor visibility in the region.