Daijiworld Media Network - Dehradun
Dehradun, Oct 30: A helicopter en route from Badrinath to Dehradun crashed near Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Friday afternoon. The tragic mishap has claimed the life of a Central Crime Branch (CCB) inspector from Bengaluru, while his four friends and the chopper's pilot are missing and feared dead.
The aircraft, registered as VT-HCX and operated by Trans Bharat, went down near Chai village in the Joshimath area at around 2.20 pm.
The passengers, all residents of Bengaluru, were reportedly on a Char Dham pilgrimage. They have been identified as CCB inspector Arun Solanki, Pratap, Shankar Gowda, K Sudhir, and Nagaraju. The helicopter was being flown by captain Himanshu.
While preliminary reports indicated that all six individuals perished on the spot, later updates confirmed the death of Solanki. His four friends remain untraceable. Local police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel are currently carrying out extensive search operations in the treacherous terrain to locate the missing passengers. Solanki is survived by his wife and two children.
Expressing shock over the tragedy, Karnataka chief minister D K Shivakumar took to 'X' on Friday evening to condole the deaths and assure assistance to the grieving families.
"Deeply shocked and saddened by the news of the helicopter crash near Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, while travelling from Badrinath to Dehradun during the Char Dham yatra, which claimed the lives of a Delhi-based pilot and five passengers from Karnataka," he posted.
"May the souls of captain Himanshu, CCB inspector Arun Salanke, Pratap B Ningaraju, Shankargowda V B, Sudhir K, and H S Nataraju, who lost their lives in this tragedy, rest in peace. I pray that God grants the bereaved families the strength to bear this immense loss. Om Shanti," he stated.
Shivakumar added that the state government is in constant touch with Uttarakhand officials to bring the mortal remains back to Karnataka at the earliest, assuring that the government stands firmly with the bereaved families during this difficult time.
Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also expressed his condolences on social media, noting that he is personally monitoring the situation. He confirmed that a massive joint rescue operation involving the district administration, disaster management personnel, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) was immediately launched at the crash site.