Seven killed as helicopter crashes near Kedarnath

A helicopter ferrying pilgrims from Kedarnath temple to Guptkashi crashed into a hill due to poor visibility on Tuesday killing all six pilgrims and the pilot on the spotThe chopper Bell 407 VTRPN and operated by Aryan Aviation burst into flames at around 1145 am at Dev Darshini in Garud Chatti Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh saidTeams from the National Disaster Response Force NDRF disaster response forces of Uttarakhand and Delhi and police brought the bodies to the Kedarnath helipadThe Rudraprayag disaster management office identified the victims as Poorva Ramanuj 26 Kriti Brar 30 and Urvi Brar 25 from Gujarat and Sujata 56 Prem Kumar and Kala 60 from Tamil Nadu Pilot Anil Singh 57 hailed from Maharashtra it saidPresident Droupadi Murmu Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia condoled the loss of livesThe news of the death of many pilgrims including the pilot in the helicopter crash near Kedarnath Dham is very sad My deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones Murmu tweeted in HindiAlso Read Woman dies in pothole related accident in Bengaluru CM orders probeAnguished by the helicopter crash in Uttarakhand In this tragic hour my thoughts are with the bereaved families Modi was quoted as saying in a tweet by his officeScindia wrote Deeply saddened by the loss of lives in the tragic crash My heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased May God give them the strength to bear this lossIn another tweet he said the civil aviation ministry was constantly monitoring the situationThe helicopter crash in Kedarnath is extremely unfortunate We are in touch with the state government to ascertain the magnitude of the loss and are constantly monitoring the situation he saidChief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami too expressed grief and ordered a detailed inquiry into the crashIn August 2019 three people were killed in a private helicopter crash The chopper was carrying relief material to the victims of severe floods and cloudburst in UttarkashiThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever