Kedarnath helicopter crash: 7 killed in the tragic disaster

The chopper crashed near the shrine, killing 7 people; this is the fifth such incident in two months.

A tragic incident made it to the top of the headlines on early Sunday morning when a chopper took off from the Kedarnath helipad around 5 am and went “missing” after authorities lost signal with it. The Aryan Aviation chopper, carrying six passengers and one captain from Kedarnath to Guptkashi, crashed near Gaurikund in Rudraprayag district, said people aware of the matter.

7 killed in the Kedarnath helicopter crash.

The chopper, which belonged to Aryan Aviation, took off from Kedarnath helipad on Sunday early morning at around 5.20 am but went missing after authorities lost signal with it. The chopper crashed near Gaurikund, killing a total of 7 people, including the pilot. Inspector Anirudh Bhandari of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) said, “All seven people on board in chopper are dead.” The victims identified are Captain Rajveer Singh Chauhan (pilot); Rajkumar Suresh Jaiswal (41), Shradha Rajkumar Jaiswal (35), Kashi (23 months), resident of Maharashtra, Vikram (46), a resident of Rudraprayag; Vinod Dev (66), and Tusti Singh (29), resident of Bijnor in UP.

A search operation has been launched.

Rahul Chaubey, District Tourism Officer, who is also the nodal officer for chopper service in Rudraprayag said, “We recieved information about missing helicopter earlier this morning. A search operation was launched to trace the helicopter. The belonging to Aryan Aviation was returning from Kedarnath Dham to its base in Guptkashi when it encountered sudden adverse weather conditions in the valley. The pilot attempted to navigate the helicopter out of the valley; however, the aircraft crashed during the effort. There were seven people on board, including the pilot, five passengers and an infant.” He added, “After locals saw smoke billowing out near Gaurikund, we came to know that it is the chopper we lost signal with has crashed.”

This is the fifth such incident in two months on the Char Dham route. It came days after, on June 7, a helicopter carrying five pilgrims made a crash landing on the Guptkashi-Gaurikund highway near Barasu in Rudraprayag district. There were no casualties; only the pilot sustained minor injuries.