Copter crash near Kedarnath leaves 6 pilgrims, pilot dead

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 18

All six passengers, including five women, died when their Bell 407 helicopter belonging to Delhi-based NSOP holder M/s Aryan Aviation crashed on the way to Guptkashi from Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand this morning.

The pilot, Anil Singh (57), who hailed from Maharashtra, too lost his life in the accident. The passengers, who died in the crash, have been identified as Purva Ramanuj, Kriti, Urvi, Sujatha, Prem Kumar and Kala. While the first three hailed from Gujarat, Sujatha, Prem Kumar and Kala belonged to Tamil Nadu.

“The bodies have been retrieved and sent to Rudraprayag for post-mortem examination,” Nandan Singh Rajwar, District Disaster Management Officer of Rudraprayag, told The Tribune over the phone.

“The bodies will be kept at the district hospital at Rudraprayag till the family members arrive. We have informed the relatives,” Aparna Dhaundiyal, SDM (Rudraprayag), said.

Capt RK Negi, CEO and chief of operations of Aryan Aviation, said they have three Bell 407 helicopters operating in the area for transportation of pilgrims. The helicopter that met with the accident today was providing shuttle service between Guptkashi and Kedarnath.

“The chopper had landed in Kedarnath to drop passengers and was returning to Guptkashi with a new set of passengers. Weather may not be responsible for the mishap because if weather was bad, the pilot would not have taken off soon after landing at Kedarnath,” Negi said.

A sortie between Guptkashi and Kedarnath takes around 20 minutes, Negi said.

Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation has constituted a three-member team for probing the crash. The team consists of MK Bajpai, Deputy Director (Airworthiness), Vishal Yadav, Deputy Director (Air Safety), and Captain Vishwanath Prakash, Flight Operations Inspector (Helicopters).

President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami are among those who expressed grief at the death of the passengers and pilot in the accident.

Aryan Aviation was among five helicopter operators engaged in transporting pilgrims to the Kedarnath shrine that were fined Rs 5 lakh each by the DGCA in August for anomalies in their flying records.

On May 31, a helicopter carrying pilgrims made an uncontrolled hard landing at the Kedarnath helipad. Video of the incident went viral, prompting a safety audit by the DGCA then.

This is the second helicopter crash in the area in about four-and-a-half years.

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