Helicopter carrying pilgrims from Badrinath crashes near Joshimath in India's Uttarakhand, killing all six on board

A helicopter carrying five pilgrims from the Hindu shrine of Badrinath crashed in a forest near Chai village, close to Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, on Friday 30 October, killing everyone on board, Indian officials said.

India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation said the AS350B3 helicopter, registration VT-HCX and operated by Trans Bharat Aviation, took off from the Badrinath helipad at 1:14pm local time (7:44am GMT) bound for Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun, with one pilot and five passengers. Chamoli police chief Surjit Singh Panwar said contact was lost about two minutes after take-off and that an Army post raised the alarm, PTI reported. The district emergency centre said an Army team saw smoke coming from the helicopter as it lost height.

Officials named the pilot as Captain Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, from Delhi. The five passengers were from the southern state of Karnataka, PTI reported. Officials said darkness and difficult terrain meant the bodies would be brought down on Saturday.

The cause is not yet known. The India Meteorological Department had issued an orange alert for Chamoli for Friday, warning of thunderstorms, hail and gusty winds, PTI and the BBC reported. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau has sent a team, and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation dispatched officials to Dehradun for a preliminary assessment, the ministry said. The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority grounded Trans Bharat Aviation’s entire fleet as a precaution, its chief executive Prateek Jain told PTI.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami ordered a detailed investigation and support for the victims’ families. According to India’s civil aviation ministry, 12 accidents involving scheduled helicopter operators killed 30 people from 2020 to 2025, seven of them in Uttarakhand.

Figures as of about 4:00pm GMT on 30 October.