A helicopter returning from Badrinath to Sahasradhara in Dehradun crashed in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand on Friday.
According to the district administration, all six people in the helicopter, including five passengers and the pilot, died in the accident.
The accident occurred in the high Himalayan region above Hathi Pahad and Chai village near Joshimath.
Pilot Himanshu Sabharwal was a resident of Delhi.
BBC's associate journalist Imran Qureshi told that all five passengers in the helicopter were from Karnataka.
According to the report released by the District Disaster Management Officer, the team of 9 Independent Mountain Brigade of the Army reached the spot at around 3.30 pm.
The team confirmed the death of all six people aboard the helicopter. The helicopter was completely damaged in the accident.
This helicopter belonged to Trans Bharat Aviation. According to the report of the District Disaster Management Officer, the helicopter took off from Badrinath at 1:12 pm and crashed at around 2 pm.
According to Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA), the helicopter lost contact while flying over Joshimath Valley.
Even through his tracking system his location could not be known. After this the search operation was started.
Chamoli Additional District Magistrate Vivek Prakash said, "A helicopter returning from Badrinath to Sahasradhara crashed in the high Himalayan region near Hathi Pahad and Chai village on the way. In this tragic accident, five passengers and a pilot in the helicopter, i.e. a total of six people have died."
According to the Additional District Magistrate, all the bodies have been located and the rescue team has reached the spot. The dead bodies will be taken out from there and brought to Joshimath, where postmortem will be conducted the next day.
Those who lost their lives in the accident have been identified as pilot Himanshu Sabharwal and passengers have been identified as Arun Salunke, HS Nataraj, Pratapa Bachihalli Nigarajan, Sudhir K and Shankar Gowda VB.
In the report of the district administration, the passengers belong to Karnataka.
After the accident, teams of Indian Army, District Administration, Police, ITBP, NDRF and SDRF engaged in relief and rescue operations.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has expressed deep sorrow over the loss of lives in the accident.
The Chief Minister has given instructions for a detailed investigation into the causes and all aspects of the accident.
As a precautionary measure, UCADA has banned the flights of the entire helicopter fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation. A detailed investigation is being conducted to find out the cause of the accident.
BBC associate journalist Imran Qureshi said that one of the five passengers was Inspector Arun Solanki of Bengaluru Police. He was considered a good police officer.
Arun Salunke was originally from Belagavi district of Karnataka. He had gone to visit Badrinath with his four friends. The two friends who accompanied him were lawyers.
Arun Salunke was posted in the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of Bengaluru City Police.
Bengaluru Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh told BBC News Hindi, "Arun was a good police officer. He was also the police officer who recently arrested an IAS officer from Andhra Pradesh after a brawl in a pub."
The incident, which took place on Friday, occurred amidst heavy rain in the area. The Meteorological Department had issued an orange alert for this area, warning of rain with thunder, hailstorm and strong winds.
In June 2025, a helicopter carrying devotees crashed near Kedarnath, killing seven people.
Earlier in October 2022, seven people had lost their lives in another helicopter accident on the same pilgrimage route.
Several other incidents of helicopter accidents were also reported during the 2025 pilgrimage.
