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AAIB team starts probe in Kedarnath Dham chopper crash
A preliminary analysis showed the aircraft went down in treacherous weather in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district
Dehradun: A team from Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) arrived in Rudraprayag on Sunday evening to carry out the investigation of the chopper crash near Gaurikund that killed seven people, including its pilot and inspect the site, an official said.
Rahul Chaubey, Rudraprayag district tourism officer (DTO), who also serves as nodal officer for the chopper services in the district, said, “The AAIB officials arrived in Rudraprayag on Sunday evening to carry out the investigation of the chopper crash and inspect the crash site.”
He said, “DGCA has already conveyed to the helicopter operators to be extra cautious and not operate in bad weather.”
A helicopter carrying pilgrims from Kedarnath crashed on Sunday morning at around 5.30 am, killing all seven people aboard, including a two-year-old girl, as preliminary analysis showed the aircraft went down in treacherous weather in the Rudraprayag district.
Sunday’s tragedy was the fifth helicopter incident on the route in six weeks: three emergency landings and another crash have killed six people during this period.
The crash highlights growing safety concerns over helicopter operations serving the Char Dham pilgrimage route, which includes four sacred Hindu temples in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. The routes see tens of thousands of pilgrims annually, many using helicopters to navigate the treacherous mountain terrain.
Meanwhile, the police handed over the bodies of the victims to their families after postmortem.
The victims included pilot Rajveer Singh Chauhan, 35, a former army officer from Jaipur; a family of three from Maharashtra — Rajkumar Suresh Jaiswal, 41, his wife Shradha, 35, and their daughter Kashi, 2; two passengers from Uttar Pradesh, Vinod Devi, 66, and her granddaughter Tusti Singh, 19; and temple committee member Vikram Singh Rawat, 46.
Circle officer, Rudraprayag, Prabodh Ghildiyal said, “We have handed over the bodies of the victims to their families after postmortem.”
Police in Sunday registered a first information report (FIR) against two officials of Aryan Aviation Pvt Limited whose chopper crashed early morning for “gross negligence”.
The FIR was registered at Sonprayag police station against Kaushik Pathak, account manager of the company, and Vikas Tomar, manager of the company, under section 105 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and relevant sections of the Aircraft Act on the complaint of revenue sub inspector Rajiv Nakholia.
Nakholia in his complaint said that the chopper of the company operated despite bad weather conditions in violation of standard operating procedure (SOP) issued by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) . He said there had been clouds in the sky and fog since morning, and despite knowing that it can cause loss of lives and property, the two officials of the company responsible for compliance of SOPs showed gross negligence towards their duties.
Circle officer Guptkashi Vikas Pundir said, “We have started our investigation against the accused. No arrest has been made yet.”
