Helicopter Crashes into Hill and Shatters! 6 Pilgrims Including Pilot Killed Tragically

The sky has once again echoed with the sound of death! Six people, including the pilot, lost their lives in a horrific helicopter crash while on their way for darshan. The tragic incident occurred on Friday afternoon in the hilly area of Syahi village near Joshimath in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

As confirmed by Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panwar to news agency PTI, all persons on board the ill-fated helicopter belonging to Trans Bharat Aviation have died. Rescue teams have already recovered all the bodies from the spot.

According to Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority CEO Prateek Jain, the helicopter had taken off from Badrinath to Sahastradhara Heliport in Dehradun at 1:14 pm. While crossing the Joshimath valley, it suddenly lost contact with the tracking system and went missing near Hathi Parvat.

Those who lost their lives in the accident have been identified as pilot Captain Himanshu and five pilgrims – Pratap, Arun, Shankar Gouda, Sudhir K R and H S Nataraj. The pilgrims were residents of Bengaluru.

State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Army, Police and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel were immediately deployed at the spot to carry out rescue operations. Eyewitnesses reported seeing fire and toxic smoke from the helicopter after it crashed.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed his condolences over the tragic incident through social media platform X. The Chief Minister himself is monitoring the entire situation of the joint rescue operation by the district administration and disaster management department.

Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure after this horrific accident, the aviation authority has immediately suspended all helicopter services of Trans Bharat Aviation. It is suspected that the tragic accident occurred due to adverse weather and recent snowfall.