Helicopter With Six On Board Crashes in Uttarakhand

A helicopter with six people on board crashed into a hillside in Joshimath on a rained out, overcast Friday afternoon about an hour after it took off from Badrinath on its way to Dehradun, officials said.

The six people on board the Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd.'s helicopter were identified as Capt. Himanshu and five male passengers -- Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K, and H S Natraja. There is no immediate confirmation of casualties.

The chopper crashed into a hillside near the JP



Power House near Marwari Bridge around 2.20 pm, they said. It is not confirmed yet whether it was returning from the Badrinath shrine. 

Teams of the Chamoli administration, police, SDRF, Army and ITBP have been dispatched to the site for relief and rescue operations, they said. 

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said he was monitoring the situation closely and that he has issued instructions that those who are critically injured are immediately airlifted to a higher-level medical facility.