Seven killed as helicopter ferrying pilgrims crashes near Kedarnath

A private helicopter ferrying pilgrims crashed into a hill near the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand on Tuesday, killing all the seven people onboard, including the pilot.

A state police statement said the helicopter apparently crashed after ferrying pilgrims back from the shrine due to the thick fog and poor visibility. The Director General of Civil Aviation has ordered an inquiry into the crash.  

The Bell 407 helicopter belonging to Aryan Aviation caught a fire after the crash. A state government statement said the accident occurred at 1140 hours and a magisterial inquiry was ordered.

Those killed included pilot Anil Singh (57) from Mumbai. The six passengers have been identified as Urvi Barad (25), Kriti Barad (30), and Purva Ramanuj (26) from Bhavnagar in Gujarat, and Sujata (56), Kala (50), and Prem Kumar (63) from Chennai. The chopper took off from Kedarnath and was going to Guptkashi, which is the base camp of the shrine in Rudraprayag district.

After the crash, the state civil aviation department suspended all the helicopter flights to Kedarnath.

C Ravishankar, the chief operating officer of the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority, said the rescue workers were trying to recover the black box of the chopper.

President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief over the crash.   

“Anguished by the helicopter crash in Uttarakhand. In this tragic hour, my thoughts are with the bereaved families,” the PM said in a tweet.