In brief
A helicopter taking off from the pilgrimage town of Badrinath crashed amid snowfall near Chayee village in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand, on Friday. Six people on board, including five Hindu pilgrims and the pilot, are feared dead and a joint rescue operation has begun. The crash echoes a similar accident on the same pilgrimage route last year, which also claimed lives.
A helicopter that had departed from the Hindu pilgrimage town of Badrinath for a short flight over the Uttarakhand mountains crashed near Chayee village close to Joshimath, killing all six people on board, local authorities said on Friday.
Officials say the aircraft took off at 1:14 p.m. local time in a snow‑shrouded area, and lost contact near the Hathi Parvat region before going down, with smoke seen rising from the crash site.
Pushkar Singh Dhami, Uttarakhand’s chief minister, posted a statement on social media that a joint rescue operation was underway, involving the district administration, the State Disaster Management Department and the State Disaster Response Force.
The flight carried five Hindu pilgrims and a single pilot, all of whom are feared dead, the Xinhua report said.
BBC News reported that earlier, in June 2025, a helicopter carrying pilgrims crashed near Kedarnath on the same pilgrimage route, killing seven people, and that another similar accident occurred on the route that year, killing an additional seven.
