Hyderabad: All six people on board a helicopter that crashed near Chaien village in Uttarakhand's Joshimath on Friday have died, Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panwar told PTI. The deceased included five passengers and the pilot.
The helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation, was travelling from Badrinath Dham to Dehradun when contact with the aircraft was lost along the high-altitude mountain route. Smoke was later spotted rising near Chaien village, prompting a search operation.
Chamoli district administration said the helicopter had six people on board, including five passengers and a pilot. It deployed another helicopter carrying an aerial search team to locate the aircraft.
The pilot was identified as Captain Himanshu Sabharwal. The five passengers were Arun Salunke, HS Nagaraja, Prathapa Bachihally Ningarajan, Sudheer K and Shankargowda VB.
The helicopter, bearing registration number VT-HCX, took off from Badrinath at around 1:14 pm on Friday. It was last in contact near the Army post on Hathi Pahad, opposite Joshimath. Preliminary information had earlier put its departure time at around 1:12 pm.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said a joint rescue operation had been launched by the district administration, disaster management department and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF).
In a post on X, Dhami said he was monitoring the situation and that instructions had been issued to airlift seriously injured people to higher medical centres for treatment. However, Chamoli SP Panwar later confirmed that all six people on board had died.
The crash was reported amid deteriorating weather conditions in the region.