Helicopter crashes near Kedarnath shrine, all seven on board killed

A helicopter, operated by Aryan Aviation Pvt Ltd, crashed near the Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand early on Sunday, 15 June, killing all seven on board.

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 crashed between Gaurikund and Trijuginarayan in Kedarghati and caught fire.

“All six people on board, including the pilot, five passengers, an infant, and one BKTC employee, have died. There is no possibility of anyone surviving,” said Garhwal commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey at the crash site.

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.

Congress leader Gurdeep Singh Sappal said this was the fifth accident in the last one and a quarter months.

"Home minister Amit Shah has said - 'It is an accident, no one can stop an accident!' Therefore, everything will go on like this, at the mercy of God! No one is accountable in the Modi era!" Sappal said in a post on X.

The incident comes days after an Air India flight to London crashed in Ahmedabad, killing 265 people on board and several others on the ground.

Earlier, on 8 May, a helicopter going to Gangotri Dham crashed in Uttarkashi district in which six people were killed.

On 7 June, 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.

With PTI inputs