6 killed as helicopter on way to Gangotri temple crashes
Uttarkashi (U'khand), May 8 (PTI): A helicopter on its way to the Gangotri temple crashed near Gangnani in Uttarkashi district on Thursday, killing six people, including the pilot, and leaving a man seriously injured, officials said.
Barring the pilot, who hailed from Gujarat's Vadodara, the five other deceased were women.
The lone survivor of the crash was Maktur Bhaskar (51), a resident of Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh, Uttarkashi's Superintendent of Police (SP) Sarita Dobhal said.
Bhaskar, who sustained serious injuries, was brought in an air ambulance from the crash site to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Rishikesh for treatment. His wife, Vedanti (48), was also among the dead.
The helicopter of a private company, with seven people on board, crashed over the Rishikesh-Gangotri national highway at around 8:45 am and fell into a gorge about 200-250 metres deep, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) said.
The helicopter had left the Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun for the Kharsali helipad. It was on its way to Gangotri from there when it crashed, an official said.
District Magistrate Meharban Singh Bisht said six people died on the spot. One of the passengers on the helicopter -- M Bhaskar (51) from Andhra Pradesh -- was seriously injured in the crash and was airlifted to the AIIMS, Rishikesh, the DM added.
Three on board the helicopter were from Mumbai, two from Andhra Pradesh and one each was from Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
Those killed were identified as Kala Chandrakant Soni (61), Vijaya Lakshmi Reddy (57), Ruchi Agrawal (56), Radha Agrawal (79), Vedanti (48) and Captain Robin Singh (60), the pilot.
The SP said it took hours to extract the bodies from the remains of the helicopter, pull those out of the gorge and up to the road. The bodies were sent to the Uttarkashi district hospital for post mortem.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief over the loss of lives in the accident.
The administration has been instructed to provide all possible help to the injured and investigate the accident, he said, adding that he is constantly in touch with officials and monitoring the situation.
Officials said the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will probe the crash.
A Bell helicopter of AeroTrans Services Private Limited was involved in the crash.
According to information available on aviation regulator DGCA's website, AeroTrans Services has two Bell helicopters and one Cessna aircraft.
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11 more bodies retrieved from Arunachal accident site
Itanagar (PTI): Eleven more bodies were retrieved on Saturday from the deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district, where a mini-truck on which 22 labourers from Assam were travelling fell, an official said.
With this, 17 bodies have been recovered from the accident site, Anjaw's deputy commissioner Milo Kojin said.
He said three more bodies will be brought out on Sunday.
The operation, being conducted by a joint team of the NDRF and Army, resumed at 6 am.
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"The retrieval process was extremely difficult because of the treacherous terrain, and the gorge is very deep," Kojin said.
The operation was suspended around 4 pm due to low visibility and will be resumed on Sunday morning, he said.
"One person is still missing, and a search operation will be carried out tomorrow," he added.
The accident happened on the evening of December 8, around 40 km from Hayuliang towards Chaglagam in the district. On the evening of December 10, one survivor managed to climb out of the gorge and reach a nearby Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) labour camp, following which the authorities were alerted.
Six bodies were recovered from the gorge on Friday and handed over to their families on Saturday.
