All seven people on a helicopter in northern India were killed early on Sunday when it crashed while ferrying passengers on a popular Hindu pilgrimage route in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand, officials said.
The news broke out as doctors say 270 bodies have been recovered from the site of Thursday’s Air India plane crash in Ahmedabad.
The London-bound plane crashed into a residential area shortly after take-off killing all but one of the 242 passengers and crew members, a 40-year-old British man.
The unfortunate helicopter was headed to Guptkashi from the shrine of Kedarnath, said the state’s director-general of information, Bansidhar Tripathi.
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The Uttarakhand government ordered helicopter services to Kedarnath Valley suspended until Monday due to bad weather, Tripathi said. There have been three emergency landings and two helicopter crashes on the same route in the past month and a half, he said.
“Very sad news has been received about a helicopter crash in Rudraprayag district,” the state’s chief minister, Pushkar Singh Dhami, posted on X, adding that the State Disaster Response Force, local administration and other rescue teams were engaged in relief and rescue operations.
Dhami said in a statement he has ordered an inquiry into the cause of the crash.
The authorities will also examine helicopter pilots and operators, and “only those pilots who have long experience of flying helicopters in high Himalayan regions will be allowed,” he said.
Helicopter service for the pilgrimage will be resumed only after a meeting with all helicopter operators, Dhami said.
The Bell 407 helicopter, operated by Aryan Aviation, took off at 5:19 a.m. (2349 GMT on Saturday), India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
Hundreds of thousands of people visit Uttarakhand’s Himalayan mountains every year, drawn by the belief that deities such as Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu reside here.
Kedarnath is a part of the Char Dham Yatra pilgrimage route of four temple towns, which also include Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri.
In the plane crash, officials have been trying to establish how many people were killed on the ground and have been continuing the slow process of matching DNA samples to confirm the victims’ identities.
Vigils honouring the dead have taken place across India and the UK.
About 100 people gathered outside the High Commission of India in London on Sunday, with many laying candles in memory of those who died in the crash.
One community leader said they had been in touch with a family who had flown to India to identify the remains of their loved ones and were waiting in hospital for the results of DNA matching.
Many people at the gathering want answers on how and why the incident could have happened, the community leader said.
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is leading the inquiry into the cause of the crash, helped by teams from the US and UK.
On Friday, a black box was found at the site of the crash which India’s civil aviation minister, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, said would “significantly aid the inquiry” into the disaster.
Less than 60 seconds after leaving Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, the plane lost altitude and crashed into a building that was used as doctors’ accommodation at the BJ Medical College and Civil Hospital.
On Saturday, the President of the Junior Doctors’ Association of the college, Dr Dhaval Gameti, confirmed the hospital had received the bodies of 270 victims.
Of those, 241 are believed to be passengers and crew of Flight AI171.
More than thirty victims have also been formally identified using DNA samples provided by relatives.
According to data by tracking website, Flightradar24, the Boeing Dreamliner 787-8 was 11 years old and had operated 25 flights from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick in the past two years.
In response to Thursday’s crash, India’s aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), ordered additional safety checks on Air India’s Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 fleet, describing it as a “preventive measure”.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi spent around 20 minutes walking around the site of the plane crash on Friday.
He also visited the hospital to meet some of those injured in the disaster, including the sole plane survivor Vishwashkumar Ramesh, later saying that “the entire nation is praying for their speedy recovery”.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson also went to the crash site on Friday and described the visit as “deeply moving”.
THENEWSGIANT USED REPORTS FROM BBC AND REUTERS FOR THIS NEWS ITEM
