CM Dhami orders inquiry, Heli services to Char Dham suspended till Monday
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE/Dehradun
Seven people were killed after a helicopter crashed near Kedarnath in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand on Sunday. This is the fifth accident since the opening of the Char Dham portals and 13 people have died so far. The Rudraprayag district tourism officer, Rahul Choubey said that the Aryan Aviation chopper was ferrying pilgrims back from the Kedarnath shrine to Guptkashi when it went down in a forested area between Gaurikund and Sonprayag at around 5:20 AM on Sunday. He said that the incident involved six pilgrims, five adults and a 23-month-old child along with the pilot. All were charred to death in the crash. “The helicopter was on its return journey after a visit to Kedarnath temple when the weather deteriorated. The pilot tried to steer the chopper out of the valley but it went down near Gaurikund. Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with the police then carried out rescue operations,” Choubey said. The deceased have been identified as Captain Rajbeer Singh Chauhan (39) from Jaipur, Vikram Rawat from Ukhimath, Vinod Devi (66) from Uttar Pradesh, Trishti Singh (19) from Uttar Pradesh and a couple from Maharashtra Rajkumar Suresh Jaiswal (41) and Shraddha Rajkumar Jaiswal along with their 23-month-old daughter Kashi. The couple’s son, Vivaan, was unharmed as he stayed back with his grandfather. The deceased Rawat was a Badrinath-Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) employee. Choubey informed that locals who were collecting fodder for their cattle first noticed the wreckage and alerted the authorities. NDRF and SDRF teams reached Gaurikund by 7 AM, reached the accident spot via trekking and began their rescue operations an hour later. All the bodies have been recovered, he added. Officials said that due to the condition of the bodies, a DNA test will be conducted before they are handed over to the respective families.
Taking note of the accident, Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami suspended helicopter services till Monday. He also ordered an inquiry into the crash and said that action will be taken against those found negligent. He also announced the establishment of a Command and Coordination Centre in Dehradun for the coordination of helicopter operations.
