A helicopter crash in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand has killed all six people on board, including the pilot, officials said on Friday.
The helicopter owned by Trans Bharat Aviation Private Limited, with the call sign VT-HCX, was heading from Badrinath in Chamoli district to Dehradun when contact with it was lost at around 1:15 PM IST. It crashed into a hillside, local officials said.
“We have received the unfortunate news of a helicopter crash near Chayee village, close to Joshimath,” Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami posted on X. Joshimath is a sacred hill town in the Garhwal Himalayas.
Indian Army and local rescue teams were rushed to the scene of the crash. The Chamoli district administration later confirmed the deaths of all on board the chopper.
The five passengers on board the chopper were from the southern Indian state of Karnataka. The pilot, Capt. Himanshu Sabharwal, was from Delhi, reports said.
The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority has grounded Trans Bharat’s helicopter fleet as a precautionary step.
Heavy rains and poor visibility have been reported in the area, which is under an “orange” alert issued by the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). The IMD has forecast thunderstorms, hail, and gusty winds accompanied by heavy rainfall in many areas of the Himalayan state bordering China and Nepal.
The pilgrim site of Badrinath, from where the chopper took off, is part of the Char Dham pilgrimage route along with Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri. Pilgrims take chopper rides to avoid difficult mountain treks on the route.
Aviation authorities have boosted inspections and imposed flight curbs following a spate of mishaps in the hill state’s pilgrim routes.
Seven people were killed in a helicopter crash involving pilgrims near Kedarnath in June last year, and a similar number of casualties were reported in another crash on the same pilgrimage route in October, 2022.