Uttarakhand Helicopter Crash: All 6 On Board, Including Pilot, Killed Near Joshimath

All six people on board a helicopter that went missing while flying from Badrinath Dham to Dehradun were killed after the aircraft crashed near Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Friday. The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) confirmed the deaths.

Prateek Jain, CEO of UCADA, told news agency ANI over the phone that all six occupants, including the pilot, had died in the crash. The helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd., was carrying five passengers and a pilot.

Helicopter loses contact over Joshimath

The aircraft, bearing call sign VT-HCX, had taken off from Badrinath at approximately 1:14 pm for Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun. It reportedly lost communication while flying over the Joshimath valley, following which its tracking system also stopped receiving signals.

The pilot has been identified as Captain Himanshu, while the five passengers were identified as Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K and H.S. Natraja. According to UCADA, the passengers were reportedly residents of Bengaluru.

Search and rescue teams mobilised

Following the incident, teams from the Indian Army, Chamoli district administration and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were mobilised for search and rescue operations.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said he was monitoring the situation and that a joint rescue operation had been launched.

Aviation company fleet grounded

Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd. has been grounded following the crash.