Tuesday, 18 October 2022 | PNS | DEHRADUN
In a tragic accident occurring just three days before the planned visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seven persons including six pilgrims and the pilot were killed when a helicopter crashed near Kedarnath on Tuesday morning. The helicopter belonging to the Aryan Aviation company was returning with pilgrims from Kedarnath to Guptkashi when it crashed at Garudchatti. The personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) responded to the emergency and reached the accident site only to find body parts of the passengers along with the wreckage of the helicopter. The Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the accident.
The chief executive officer of the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA), C Ravishankar informed media persons that the helicopter crashed at 11:41 AM at Garudchatti when it was on its way back from Kedarnath. He said that the pilot of the helicopter Anil Singh (57) of Mumbai, Purva Ramanuj (26), Kriti Barad ( 30) and Urvi Barad (25) of Gujarat and Sujata (56), Kala (60) and Prem Kumar ( 63) of Tamil Nadu died in the crash. An inquiry at the level of district magistrate of Rudrapryag has been constituted in the accident. The exact cause of the crash would be known only after the inquiry but prima facie the accident could have been caused by bad weather as the weather had suddenly deteriorated in the area. Ravishankar added that all helicopter services operating in the area have been suspended in view of the recovery operation. He clarified that the ambit of the UCADA is only limited to provide time slots for the helicopter operators and it is the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which takes decisions on the safety and permission of the flights. He added a technical expert of UCADA would be part of the inquiry of the administration and its findings would be submitted to the DGCA which can conduct its own technical investigation. Ravishankar informed that nine helicopter companies are operating in Kedarnath and out of them only six companies are allowed to operate the helicopters at a time.
