All six killed in Uttarakhand helicopter crash recovered
The bodies of the pilot and five passengers have been retrieved from a remote mountainous area in Chamoli district.
All six people killed in a helicopter crash near Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Friday, October 30, have been recovered, according to reports from The Indian Express and The New Indian Express.
The helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd with the call sign VT-HCX, took off from Badrinath at 1.14 pm for the Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun before losing contact near the Joshimath valley.
The deceased include pilot Captain Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, of Delhi, and five passengers from Karnataka: Pratap, 41; Arun Salunke, 44; V B Shankar Gowda, 39; Sudhir K, 50; and H S Nataraja, 51.
Rescue teams from the Army, ITBP, NDRF, SDRF, Uttarakhand Police, Forest Department and Revenue Department reached the site on foot via steep paths near Chai village.
The recovery operation was conducted amid an IMD orange alert for thunderstorms, hail and strong winds, with reports of heavy rain and dense cloud cover in the area.
The bodies were taken to the Community Health Centre in Jyotirmath and are being transported to AIIMS Rishikesh for post-mortem examinations.