Daijiworld Media Network - Dehradun
Dehradun, Oct 30: Five passengers from Karnataka and the pilot were killed after a helicopter travelling from Badrinath to Sahastradhara crashed near Chai village, close to Joshimath in Uttarakhand, on Friday, officials said.
The bodies of all six victims have been recovered from the crash site by joint teams of the Uttarakhand Police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the Indian Army, which launched rescue and recovery operations immediately after receiving information about the accident.
Officials said efforts were underway to transport the bodies from the difficult-to-access crash site to a location connected by road.
The pilot, who was operating the helicopter belonging to private aviation company Trans Bharat Aviation, was identified as Captain Himanshu Sabharwal, a resident of Delhi. The five passengers were identified as Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K. and H.S. Natraja, all from Karnataka.
Officials confirmed that no women or children were on board the helicopter.
Earlier, Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjeet Singh Panwar said the helicopter had taken off from the Badrinath Civil Helipad at approximately 1.12 pm, bound for the Sahastradhara Helipad. Contact with the aircraft was lost near Joshimath around 1.14 pm.
“Local personnel stationed in the nearby area reported that the helicopter was seen heading into a valley below while flying at a considerable height,” he said.
The SP said the pilot was Himanshu Sabharwal, from Delhi, and the five passengers were from Karnataka. Search efforts were initially launched to locate the aircraft and establish the whereabouts of those on board.
According to the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCDA), the helicopter lost communication while flying over the Joshimath valley.
“At the same time, the tracking system could no longer track the helicopter, and its current location has not been ascertained yet,” an official statement said.
Immediately after receiving information about the incident, teams from the Indian Army, Chamoli district administration and SDRF were mobilised and dispatched to conduct search and rescue operations, the statement added.
As a precautionary measure, the entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd. was grounded following the accident, the UCDA said.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat called for an inquiry into the series of helicopter crashes reported in the state in recent years.
Expressing grief over the latest tragedy, Rawat said helicopter services must be made safer alongside efforts to improve their competitiveness.
“This is deeply painful... Along with making our helicopter services competitive, we also need to make them safe and secure. An inquiry will be conducted, and improvements will be made based on the probe, but this is extremely necessary because one after another, such incidents are happening, which is alarming,” he told reporters.