Helicopter crashed within seconds after takeoff, says security guard deployed at Kedarnath helipad
Gopeshwar(PTI): The helicopter, which crashed near Kedarnath on Tuesday killing seven people on board, met with the accident hardly five-six seconds after taking off from the helipad near the Himalayan temple.
The chopper of Aryan Aviation Pvt Ltd hit a hillock amid dense fog and crashed within seconds after taking off near Garurchatti which is barely two km from Kedarnath, Manohar Singh, a security man deployed at Kedarnath helipad, said.
The helicopter came to pieces as it crashed and went up in flames, he said.
"Nothing was visible at once due to the thick blanket of fog enveloping the area but everyone ran in the direction from where a huge sound of crash came," he said.
As the fog thinned away, the helicopter was seen in flames and its pieces were scattered all over the slopes of Garurchatti, Singh said.
Ankur Shukla, a priest who happened to be at a distance from the crash site at the time of the accident, said when he saw the flames emanating from a big portion of the helicopter, he realised that a serious mishap had taken place.
Shukla got to know the details of the crash when he returned to Kedarpuri.
Head of Six Sigma Healthcare firm Dr Pradeep Bhardwaj said low visibility caused by thick fog appears to have been the main cause of the accident.
Heli services in the area have increased manifold of late but a matching security and control mechanism has not yet been developed. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) does not have an office here as yet, he said.
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Andhra: Family receives dead body in box with Rs 1.3 crore demand
Yendagandi (Andhra Pradesh) (PTI): The dead body of a 45-year-old unidentified man was delivered to a family here in West Godavari district in a box with a demand for over Rs one crore claiming it to be the compounded amount of a loan taken years ago, police said on Friday.
The box was delivered at the under construction house of the family on Thursday night.
District superintendent of police Adnan Nayeem Asmi said the box was delivered to the family of four with a letter demanding them to pay up Rs 1.35 crore.
"Last night the body reached this place (under construction house)," Asmi told PTI, adding police were probing the case to unearth further details.
According to police sources, the box was delivered to Sagi Tulasi's under construction home at Yendagandi village in Undi mandal in an autorickshaw.
Incidentally, Tulasi's husband went missing more than 10 years ago and never returned home, prompting her to live with her parents
Asmi said Tulasi lived with her parents until her younger sister arrived and later she moved to a rented accommodation.
Later, Tulasi started constructing a house about one km away from her parents' home and started receiving help from a philanthropist, who had sent her high quality tiles and paints in September.
According to the police, the unidentified philanthropist told Tulasi that as they both belonged to the same caste and that she was a 'widow', he was helping her.
Similarly, a message was sent to Tulasi on Thursday that she would receive some electrical goods such as motors and other articles and the box was delivered, with the body in it, police said.
Upon discovering the corpse, Tulasi's family informed the police. Along with the body, they also found a letter which claimed that Tulasi's husband had taken a loan of Rs 3 lakh back in 2008, which has now compounded to Rs 1.35 crore.
"'So, if you don't want anything bad to happen, you should pay up", police said quoting from the letter, adding the family does not have such financial muscle. A property dispute angle was also being suspected.
"We are checking up on all the missing people in the last three to four days. After post mortem (of the body) we will get more clarity," said the SP.
Meanwhile, Asmi noted that the younger son-in-law of the family has been missing since yesterday.
