Seven people, including a toddler, have been killed in India’s northern Uttarakhand state when a helicopter ferrying them for a Hindu pilgrimage crashed in the Himalayas, officials say.
According to local media reports, the aircraft was flying from Kedarnath along a popular Hindu pilgrimage route in the Himalayan mountains.
It is understood that rescue teams were immediately dispatched and an operation to retrieve the bodies has been carried out with local police.
The bodies were badly burned in a fire that followed the crash, authorities said.
Officials from the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority told reporters the chopper took off about 5:30am (00:00 GMT) on Sunday from the temple town of Kedarnath for Guptkashi, a town some 37km (23 miles) away, but crashed shortly after takeoff.
The deceased have been identified as the pilot, Captain Rajveer Singh Chauhan, and passengers Vikram Rawat, Vinod Devi, Trishti Singh, Rajkumar Jaiswal, his wife Shraddha Jaiswal and their two-year-old daughter, Kashi.
Five passengers, one child and one crew member were on board the flight bound for Guptkashi – another popular town for pilgrims.
“At around 05:00, we got the information that a helicopter, which was going from Shri Kedarnath Dham, could not be located,” the CEO of Uttarakhand’s Civil Aviation Department said.
It was then discovered that the helicopter had crashed near Gaurikund.
The state’s Director-General of information, Bansidhar Tripathi, said there had been “three emergency landings and two helicopter crashes in the past month and a half” along the Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage route.
“The negligence at whatever level has been committed will be identified and punitive action will be ensured,” Dhami said.
He added that the District Administration for Rudraprayag was also instructed to contact the families of the people who lost their lives in the accident and make proper arrangements to send their bodies to the respective states.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit the four Hindu pilgrimage sites – Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri and Kedarnath – along the Himalayan mountains every year.
This has led to an industry of helicopter charter firms developing to serve wealthy pilgrims who want to visit the shrines but avoid arduous trekking.
Uttarakhand’s State Disaster Response Force told the ANI news agency that the crash site is located in a remote and dense forest area, adding that the rescue operation is under way in coordination with the local police.
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