6, Including Pilot, On Board Uttarakhand Chopper Killed In Crash

A helicopter reported missing on the Joshimath-Badrinath route in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand has crashed, killing all six on board, officials said on Friday.The helicopter, which took off from Badrinath around 1:14 pm amid snowfall, lost contact near the Hathi Parvat area. The chopper crashed into a hillside near the JP Power House near Marwari Bridge around 2.20 pm, officials said. All six passengers - Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K, HS Natraja and pilot Capt Himanshu - were male.The Badrinath temple is among the "char dhams" in Uttarakhand. Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath are the other shrines that make up the Char Dham Yatra, a Hindu pilgrimage circuit in the Himalayas. "Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd's helicopter bearing call sign VT-HCX, operating from Badrinath to Sahastradhara, Dehradun, which took off at approximately 13:14 hours has been reportedly missing. The helicopter lost communication when it was flying over Joshimath valley. At the same time, the tracking system could no longer track the helicopter, and its current location has not been ascertained yet," Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority said in a statement. #WATCH | Uttarakhand: A team from the district administration is currently searching for the missing helicopter travelling from Badrinath to Dehradun. Smoke was seen rising near Chaien village in Joshimath, following the disappearance of the helicopter. There are six people on board the helicopter, including five passengers and one pilot: Chamoli district administration— ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2026As a precautionary measure, the entire fleet of M/s Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd has been grounded, the statement added. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said he was monitoring the situation closely and that he has issued instructions that those who are critically injured are immediately airlifted to a higher-level medical facility.An analysis by Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) showed that there were nine occurrences, including eight accidents and one serious incident, in the Char Dham sector during the in 2015-2025 period, with at least 1 accident or serious incident every year from 2022 onwards.Last year, there were four accidents - two of them fatal - which was also the maximum number of accidents that occurred in a single year, AAIB said.READ | 7 Dead In Chopper Crash Near Kedarnath, 5th Such Incident In 6 WeeksIn June last year, seven people were killed as the chopper flying them from the Kedarnath temple to Guptkashi in Uttarakhand crashed in a forest.