Dehradun, Oct 2026: Six people, including a pilot and five passengers, were killed after a helicopter travelling from Badrinath to Sahastradhara crashed near Chai village, close to Joshimath in Uttarakhand, on Friday, officials said.
The bodies of all six occupants were recovered from the crash site by joint teams of the Uttarakhand Police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and the Indian Army. The teams were mobilised soon after receiving information about the accident and launched search and recovery operations in the difficult mountainous terrain.
Officials said efforts were underway to transport the bodies from the inaccessible crash site to a location connected by road.
The pilot was identified as Captain Himanshu Sabharwal, a resident of Delhi. The five passengers — Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K. and H.S. Natraja — were all from Karnataka, police said. There were no women or children among those on board.
According to Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjeet Singh Panwar, the helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation, took off from the Badrinath Civil Helipad for Sahastradhara at around 1.12 pm.
"At around 1.14 pm, contact with the aircraft was lost near Joshimath," Panwar said, adding that local personnel in the area reported seeing the helicopter heading into a valley while flying at a considerable height.
The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCDA) said communication with the helicopter was lost while it was flying over the Joshimath valley. Its tracking system also stopped receiving signals, leaving authorities unable to establish the aircraft's location immediately after the incident.
Following the alert, teams from the Indian Army, Chamoli district administration and SDRF were deployed to the area to conduct search and rescue operations. The challenging terrain made access to the crash site difficult.
As a precautionary measure, the UCDA ordered the grounding of the entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd. following the accident.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat expressed grief over the loss of lives and called for an inquiry into the series of helicopter crashes reported in the state in recent years.
"This is deeply painful," Rawat told reporters, stressing that safety should receive equal attention alongside efforts to make helicopter services competitive.
He said an inquiry should be conducted into the incidents and that corrective measures should be implemented based on its findings.
Rawat also expressed concern over the repeated occurrence of such accidents, calling for improvements in the safety and security of helicopter operations in the state.
The crash has once again drawn attention to aviation safety in Uttarakhand, where helicopters are widely used to connect remote mountainous areas and facilitate pilgrim travel to important religious destinations.
