Six people were killed after a helicopter crashed near Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Friday, October 30. The deceased included five passengers from Bengaluru and the pilot. The helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd, was travelling from Badrinath to Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun when the accident occurred.
The five passengers were identified as Arun Salunke, Prathapa, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K and H S Natraja. The pilot was identified as Captain Himanshu Sabharwal, a resident of Delhi.
Following reports of the crash, teams from the Chamoli district administration, police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were deployed to the site. Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panwar confirmed that all six people on board had died.
The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) also grounded the entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation as a precautionary measure following the accident.