Bengaluru crime branch official, lawyers, Delhi pilot among 6 killed in Uttarakhand helicopter crash

A Bengaluru crime branch official was among the six people who died in a helicopter crash in Uttarakhand on Friday. The chopper, which took off from Badrinath and was headed for Dehradun, crashed near Jyotirmath (previously Joshimath) in Chamoli district of the state.

As the chopper lost connection and crashed minutes after take-off at 1.14 pm, a massive rescue and search operation was launched to locate the missing aircraft. The Army team, which arrived at the site of the crash at 3.30pm, found that all six people on board had died on the spot. The helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat, was flying from Badrinath Dham to the Sahastradhara helipad. Follow LIVE Updates

Who were the passengers killed in helicopter crash

The six people on board were identified as pilot Capt Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, a Delhi resident, and passengers Bachiali Nirajan, 41, Arun Salunke, 44, V B Shankar Gowda, 39, Sudhir K, 50, and HS Nataraja, 51, all residents of Karnataka.

One of the deceased, Arun Salunke was a policeman serving with Bengaluru’s Central Crime Branch (CCB), Rajya Sabha MP Mansoor Khan said in a post on X. "Having served as Sub-Inspector and Circle Inspector across Bengaluru Central jurisdictions, he earned the respect of his colleagues through his commitment to duty and public service," Khan wrote.

The other deceased were reportedly advocates, according to a report by The Times of India.

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Badrinath helicopter crash

A helicopter carrying five passengers and a pilot crashed near Chayee village in the Jyotirmath area of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Friday while flying from Badrinath to Sahastradhara in Dehradun. The crash occurred amid adverse weather conditions, officials said.

The helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd and bearing the call sign VT-HCX, took off from Badrinath at around 1.14 pm. It lost communication shortly after take-off while flying over the Jyotirmath valley, while its tracking system also stopped transmitting its location.

According to NK Joshi, district disaster management officer Chamoli, the incident was reported through an Army post, after which joint teams of the Army, police, district administration and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed for search and rescue operations. Drone teams were also deployed from the district headquarters in Gopeshwar.

The helicopter was later found to have crashed near Chayee village, close to a hill in the Marwari area of Jyotirmath. SDRF personnel from Jyotirmath were dispatched to the site, while teams from other agencies worked to reach the crash location in the mountainous terrain.