A private helicopter crashed in Garud Chatti, Kedarnath, on Wednesday. Talking to The Pioneer, Rudraprayag DM Dilip Jawalkar said that on Tuesday, two choppers had gone to drop police personnel and other assisting staff, but could not return due to inclement weather.
On Wednesday, one chopper somehow managed to return, but the other might have been caught in cloud and crashed. This is the third helicopter crash since the cloudburst on June 16-17.
Jawalkar said that the pilot identified as Capt Dhariwal and technician Abhay, who were killed in the crash, were flying the Trans Bharat chopper. State Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has expressed grief over their deaths and announced `10 lakh each to the deceased family.
The DM further said that two choppers, one each belonging to Pinnacle and Trans Bharat, had gone to Kedarnath from Guptkashi, but could not return due to poor visibility on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Trans Bharat chopper met with an accident around 3 pm, but the exact cause of the accident is not yet known.
The ill-fated chopper belonged to Trans Bharat Aviation. One more helicopter belonging to Prabhatam had crashed on the same site earlier during rescue operation, though the pilot had escaped alive. Before that an Indian Air Force chopper (Mi-17 V5) returning from a rescue mission and carrying 20 personnel crashed near Guptkashi in flood-ravaged Uttarakhand, killing all onboard. The IAF had started inducting Mi-17 V5 choppers only last year after 80 of them were ordered from Russia. The chopper belonged to a unit from Barrackpore Air Force Station in West Bengal under the Eastern Air Command.
Since the cloudburst, three choppers have crashed in Kedarnath, in which two choppers, including a MI-17 V5 helicopter and a private helicopter, crashed while returning from Kedarnath to Guptkashi and all of them who were on board, had died, but the third helicopter met with an accident while reaching Kedarnath from Guptkashi, but the pilot had escaped unhurt.