A helicopter carrying pilgrims crashed soon after taking off from the Himalayan shrine of Badrinath in Uttarakhand on Saturday, killing a crew member and injuring two pilots. All the five passengers were safe, officials said.
Police said the Agusta 119 helicopter got disbalanced during take-off due to insufficient air pressure and fell down just after take-off around 7.45am near Govindghat in Badrinath. The helicopter was on its way to Haridwar.
An official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in Delhi said an engineer, who was part of the crew, died in the accident while two pilots suffered injuries.
The engineer was idenitified as 35-year-old Vikram Lamba from Pune.
Chamoli superintendent of police Tripti Bhatt told PTI over phone that the engineer was hit by rotor blades. ANI said in a tweet that the engineer died after being strangled by the helicopter’s blades.
Quoting officials, IANS said the engineer, fearing for his life, jumped mid-air and was sliced by the rotor of the helicopter. He died on the spot.
All the five passengers were of Gujarat. They were identified as Jashodaben, Naveen Bhai, Leela Ben, Harish Bhai and Ramesh Bhai. Officials said they were safe and later provided transportation by road to Haridwar. A report by IANS said the pilgrims were from the same family and hailed from Vadodara.
The 39-year-old pilot Sanjay Wasi and co-pilot Alka Shukla were safe and escaped with minor injuries.
The helicopter that crashed in Badrinath on Saturday. (ANI Twitter)
The Agusta 119 single-engine helicopter belonged to Mumbai-based private operator Crystal Aviation Company, officials said.
Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat condoled the death of the engineer and offered condolences to his family members.
Saddened by the news of death of an engineer of a Mumbai based chopper company in SriBadrinath ji; pilot, copilot & all passengers are safe
— Trivendra S Rawat (@tsrawatbjp)10 June 2017
“May God give them strength to bear this extremely unfortunate loss,” he posted.
My condolences to the family of the engineer – May God give them strength to bear this extremely unfortunate loss
— Trivendra S Rawat (@tsrawatbjp)10 June 2017
Chief secretary S Ramaswamy has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident.
Vinod Sharma, commissioner of the Garhwal region, said the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Joshimath has been assigned the probe.
(With inputs from agencies)
Source: HindustanTimes