Six feared dead after a chopper crashed near Joshimath, Garhwal, Uttarakhand
A helicopter that took off from Badrinath at around 1:14 pm today for Sahastradhara, Dehradun was initially reported missing after contact was lost with its tracking system over the Joshimath valley. Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority CEO Prateek Jain, in the first official update recorded outdoors, said that while some local information was coming in, there was no confirmation of its location at that time. As per the manifest, six people were on board — one pilot, Capt Himanshu, and five passengers identified as Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K and H S Natraja, reported to be residents of Bengaluru. He said search and rescue had been mobilised with the Chamoli district administration, including SDRF teams and an Army unit, and a second rescue helicopter would be sent once weather cleared.
Later updates from Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and the district administration confirmed it as a crash. The aircraft, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd with registration VT-HCX, went down near Chai / Chayee village in the Joshimath / Jyotirmath area, near Hathi Parvat and above the JP Dam area, with its last contact reported near the Army post on Hathi Pahad. Officials said smoke was seen rising from the forested hillside and the wreckage was later spotted burning on a hillside near the JP Power House. The helicopter had taken off amid snowfall, at a time when IMD had issued an orange alert for Chamoli for thunderstorms, lightning, hail and gusty winds of 40-50 kmph, and bad weather with low cloud cover hampered the search.
Chief Minister Dhami said a joint rescue operation by the district administration, disaster management and SDRF, along with Army and ITBP teams, is underway and he is continuously monitoring the situation. UCADA said the entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation has been grounded as a precaution. As of this afternoon, teams were still trying to reach the crash site in difficult terrain and weather, and while all six on board are feared dead as per initial reports, the administration said the fate of the occupants had not yet been officially confirmed.
