Six people were on board; officials still don’t know what happened to them
A helicopter carrying six people crashed in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Friday afternoon, hours after it lost contact with the ground. It had taken off from Badrinath in heavy rain and thick cloud. As of now, officials have not confirmed the condition of the pilot or the five passengers.
The aircraft, registered as VT-HCX, left Badrinath at around 1:14 pm. It was supposed to land at Sahastradhara in Dehradun. Somewhere over the Joshimath valley, communication broke off, and its tracking system stopped sending signals too. Soon after, reports of a crash started coming in, and rescue work began.
The pilot has been identified as Captain Himanshu. The passengers are Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K and HS Natraja.
Where did it come down?
Details about the exact spot are still patchy. Sub-Inspector Manohar Kanyal said officials of the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) placed the Trans Bharat Aviation helicopter near the Army Camp above Chai village. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also said the crash happened near Chayi village in the Joshimath area.
Officials have also admitted they don’t yet know whether the helicopter crashed outright or made a crash landing. That difference matters, because it could change what rescuers find when they reach the site.
Rescue teams on the move
Teams from the Indian Army, the Chamoli district administration and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been sent towards the area. The Joshimath Sub-Divisional Magistrate said officials were still collecting information while teams headed to the suspected crash site.
Dhami said he was keeping a close watch on the situation. He told officials that if any passengers were seriously hurt, they should be airlifted at once to bigger hospitals. In a post on X, he called it “unfortunate news” and said the district administration, the Disaster Management Department and the SDRF were running the rescue operation together. He also said he hoped the passengers were safe.
Not the first scare this month
This crash comes just weeks after two other emergency landings involving Char Dham helicopters in Uttarakhand. In one case, a helicopter had to land in Rudraprayag because of bad weather. In another, a chopper was forced down in Tehri because of a technical problem. Both of those ended with landings, not crashes, but they have put a spotlight on flying in the hills.
Officials have not said what caused Friday’s accident, or whether the weather played a part. Those questions will likely be answered only after the site is reached and the helicopter is examined.
For now, the focus is on getting to the six people on board. The terrain around Joshimath is steep and difficult, and the bad weather that was reported earlier can slow down both ground teams and air support.
More details about the passengers and the cause of the crash are awaited, and this report will be updated as new information comes in.
