DEHRADUN, October 30 (Aalimi Nation) – All six people aboard a private helicopter that crashed into a hillside near Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Friday afternoon have died, police said. The aircraft was flying from Badrinath to Dehradun when it went down, and the Uttarakhand helicopter crash has again drawn attention to flying conditions in the state's mountain pilgrimage corridors.
According to a press note from the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority, the helicopter took off from Badrinath at 1.14 pm for Sahastradhara in Dehradun. It crashed at about 2.20 pm near the JP Power House, close to Marwari Bridge, in the Joshimath area, roughly an hour after departure. Early accounts also placed the site near Chai village, in the Hathi Parvat hills. The district administration identified the aircraft as belonging to Trans Bharat Aviation, a private operator.
Additional District Magistrate Vivek Prakash confirmed the incident earlier in the afternoon, when the condition of those aboard was still unknown. Police later said the pilot, identified as Capt. Himanshu, and five passengers had been killed. The five passengers were all men from Bengaluru, police said.
Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panwar said the bodies "have been found but not yet recovered." Teams from the district administration, the police, the State Disaster Response Force, the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police were sent to the site for rescue and relief work, officials said.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami wrote on social media that reports had been received of an "unfortunate helicopter crash" near Chai village, close to Joshimath, and that he was "personally monitoring the situation closely." He said he had directed that anyone critically injured be airlifted to a higher medical facility, and prayed for the passengers' safety. His message came before police confirmed that nobody had survived.
Officials have not stated what caused the crash, and the aircraft's last communications with air traffic services have not been described publicly. Weather conditions at the time have not been officially described, and no statement from the aviation regulator or from the operator was available at the time of writing. Whether a formal inquiry has been ordered has not been confirmed.
Helicopter services carry pilgrims and tourists between shrines and valley towns in Uttarakhand each season. Figures from the Ministry of Civil Aviation cited in reports say India recorded 12 helicopter crashes between 2020 and 2025, seven of them in Uttarakhand, and that the state's crashes accounted for 21 deaths, the highest of any state.
The state has seen fatal accidents on pilgrimage routes before. On October 18, 2022, a helicopter crashed near Kedarnath, killing all seven people on board.
Recovery of the bodies from the slope was still pending when police spoke. Officials have not said who will investigate the crash or when any findings might be made public.
