Joshimath helicopter crash: six dead, fleet grounded

All six people on board a helicopter were killed when it crashed on a hillside near Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Friday, 30 October. The aircraft, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation with the call sign VT-HCX, took off from the Badrinath civil helipad at 1:12 pm for Sahastradhara in Dehradun. Radar contact was lost at 1:14 pm. It came down near Chai village, close to the JP Power House and the Marwari Bridge. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau is investigating, and the cause has not been established.

Who was on board

The dead are the pilot, Captain Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, of Delhi, and five passengers from Karnataka who were returning from a pilgrimage to Badrinath: Pratap Gowda Bachihalli, 41, a contractor and businessman from Sakaleshpur who lived in Bengaluru; Arun Salunke, 44, an inspector with the Bengaluru police's Central Crime Branch; V.B. Shankar Gowda, 39; Sudhir K, 50, an advocate; and H.S. Nataraja, 51, who headed the Vidya Bharati Educational Institution in Tumakuru.

The search

Soldiers at a nearby Army post saw the aircraft heading into the valley about a kilometre above the Bhandakand Temple near Pandukeshwar, and an Army team later saw smoke and a rapidly descending helicopter. The Army, ITBP, SDRF, NDRF, police, district administration and Forest Department took part in the rescue, with two helicopters of the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority carrying out aerial checks and drone teams sent from Gopeshwar. Rescuers trekked over steep, remote terrain, and the search took more than 24 hours. The remains of all six were carried by road to Joshimath's Community Health Centre and flown to AIIMS Rishikesh for post-mortem examinations on Sunday.

The India Meteorological Department had issued an orange alert for Chamoli, with thunderstorms, hail, gusty winds and heavy rain forecast, and the area had intense rain, heavy cloud cover and snow in places. Officials are examining whether the weather contributed, but no link has been established. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has also begun a probe. The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority has grounded Trans Bharat Aviation's entire fleet pending the inquiry.

Ministry of Civil Aviation data for 2020 to 2025 shows that Uttarakhand accounted for seven of the 12 helicopter crashes in India in that period, with 21 deaths. Earlier this month, two Char Dham helicopters made emergency landings, one in Rudraprayag because of poor weather and one in Tehri because of a technical problem.

The five Karnataka victims' bodies reached Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru late on Sunday and were taken to their home places. Salunke's body went to Aratal in Athani taluk of Belagavi district, with last rites on Monday; Pratap's to Hassan; Sudhir's to Tyavanige village in Davanagere district; and Shankar Gowda's and Nataraja's to Huliyurdurga town in Tumakuru district.