Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar told PTI that the accident took place above the forests of Gaurikund amid poor visibility due to bad weather. Helicopter crashes or emergency landings are occurring at an alarming frequency on the Char Dham Yatra route in Uttarakhand, causing concern among people and the administration.
Dehradun: A helicopter crashed near the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand early Sunday, killing all seven on board.
On Sunday morning, an Aryan Aviation Bell 407 helicopter VT-BKA operating on sector ‘Shri Kedarnath ji- Aryan Helipad, Guptkanshi’ was involved in an accident.
“There were 5 passengers, one infant and one crew member on board. The helicopter took off from Guptakashi at 05:10 Hrs and Landed at Shri Kedarnath ji Helipad at 05:18 hrs. Helicopter took off again at 05:19 hrs for Guptkanshi and crashed near Gaurikund,” an official statement said.
Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will probe a helicopter crash near Gaurikund in Uttarakhand, in which seven people, including an infant, were killed on early Sunday.
Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh Rajwar told PTI that the accident took place above the forests of Gaurikund amid poor visibility due to bad weather.
The dead included six pilgrims and the pilot.
The helicopter took off from Kedarnath for Guptkashi around 5:30 am and crashed soon after.
Sources said the chopper belonging to Aryan Aviation Pvt Ltd crashed between Gaurikund and Trijuginarayan in Kedarghati and caught fire.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said in a post on X that a helicopter has crashed and the State Disaster Response Force and other agencies are engaged in relief and rescue operations.
Chaired a high-level meeting in the wake of the helicopter crash, the chief minister said a strict SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) should be prepared for the operation of heli services in the state, in which a complete check of the technical condition of the helicopter should be made mandatory. Weather status should also be checked before heli operations.
The chief secretary has been directed to constitute a committee of technical experts, which will prepare the SOP after thoroughly reviewing all technical and safety aspects of heli operations.
The committee will ensure that the operation of heli services is completely safe, transparent and as per the prescribed standards, an official statement said.
Dhami has also directed that the high-level committee constituted to investigate helicopter accidents that have took place in the past in the state will thoroughly investigate every aspect of the earlier heli accidents as well as Sunday’s heli crash and submit its report.
This committee will investigate the causes of each incident in depth and identify the guilty persons or institutions and recommend strict action against them.
The chief minister said the importance of heli services in the state is immense for pilgrimage, disaster management and emergency services, hence safety will be given top priority in these.
Dhami further said that his prayers are for the safety of all travellers.
“I pray to Baba Kedar for the safety of all the travellers,” the post further read.
The incident comes days after an Air India flight to London crashed in Ahmedabad, killing 241 people on board and several others on the ground.
Helicopter accidents on Char Dham Yatra route occurring at alarming frequency
Helicopter crashes or emergency landings are occurring at an alarming frequency on the Char Dham Yatra route in Uttarakhand, causing concern among people and the administration.
Earlier, on May 8, a helicopter going to Gangotri Dham crashed in Uttarkashi district in which six people were killed.
On June 7, a helicopter going to Kedarnath had to make an emergency landing on the road due to a technical fault soon after take-off in which the pilot was injured but the five devotees on board were rescued safely.
The latest crash of an Aryan Aviation Pvt Ltd chopper returning from Kedarnath near Guptkashi on Sunday morning, which killed all seven people on board, is the fifth mishap involving a helicopter on the pilgrimage route this year.
A Kestrel Aviation helicopter en route Kedarnath made an emergency landing on the highway in Rudraprayag district on June 7 after developing a technical snag shortly after take-off.
It made a hard landing on the road close to populated buildings, with its tail rotor hitting a parked car. All pilgrims on board, as well as the pilot, escaped narrowly.
The hard landing of the helicopter came about a month after another private chopper on its way to Gangotri temple crashed near Gangnani in Uttarkashi district on May 8, killing six people, including five women and the pilot, and leaving one male passenger seriously injured.
On May 12, a helicopter returning from Badrinath to Sersi with pilgrims on board had to make an emergency landing in a school playground in Ukhimath due to poor visibility. All pilgrims were safe.
The helicopter took off again after about an hour when the weather improved.
On May 17, a heli ambulance from AIIMS Rishikesh crash-landed near the Kedarnath helipad in Uttarakhand due to damage to its rear part. Fortunately, all three occupants on board – a doctor, a pilot, and a medical staff member – escaped unharmed.
“This was the fifth mishap involving a chopper on the Char Dham Yatra route within less than one-and-a-half months of the commencement of the pilgrimage this year,” state Congress vice-president Suryakant Dhasmana said.
“It shows that the state government has no control over the aviation firms operating on the route. There is no SOP for chopper operations. In the mad rush for making money, the heli companies have thrown all caution to the wind. There is no cap on the number of sorties being undertaken by them in a day,” Dhasmana said.
Social activist Anoop Nautiyal said it appears that the state government is not learning lessons from the recent mishaps involving choppers on the Yatra route.
“Four days ago, news came that there will be strict norms guiding heli operations now – only 3- 4 passengers will be allowed to board a chopper, not 5- 6. However, four days later, seven people, including the pilot, died in yet another helicopter accident,” Nautiyal said.
“If you don’t want to change the system, why do you tell lies to the people? Will anyone who played with people’s lives be suspended? Will anyone take responsibility? Will these helicopters be reined in after five accidents in little over a month, or will they keep crashing like this,” he asked.