Suryaa National Desk: There is intense tension in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district. A private helicopter leaving Badrinath for Dehradun en route... There is intense tension in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district. A private helicopter leaving Badrinath for Dehradun suddenly disappeared midway. Official sources revealed that there were six passengers including the pilot in the helicopter.
Alarmed by this incident, the state administration intensified the search operations in the Joshimath area. The Indian Army, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), ITBP and local police are jointly carrying out massive relief operations. Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority officials said that this helicopter belonging to Trans Bharat Aviation took off from Badrinath towards Sahasradhara Heliport in the afternoon. It is stated that on reaching the vicinity of Joshimath Valley, contact with Air Traffic Control was completely lost and the helicopter was nowhere to be found. As the traffic stopped, the district administration immediately responded by deploying two more helicopters for the search.
According to preliminary information, it is suspected that the helicopter may have crashed at the back of Hathi Parvat, Chai village in Joshimath region. At present, adverse weather conditions, heavy rains and snowfall in many parts of Uttarakhand are seriously disrupting the relief efforts. However, the SDRF and Army personnel in the field are continuously carrying out the search operations. The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand has expressed shock over this incident and is monitoring the situation himself. Officials said that the complete details of the rescue operation will be revealed soon.
