A Trans Bharat Aviation helicopter carrying a pilot and five passengers went missing while traveling from Badrinath to Dehradun after losing communication over the Joshimath valley. Multi-agency search and rescue teams, including the Indian Army and SDRF, were immediately mobilized to locate the aircraft, while the company's entire helicopter fleet was grounded as a precautionary measure.

A Trans Bharat Aviation helicopter carrying a pilot and five passengers went missing while traveling from Badrinath to Dehradun after losing communication over the Joshimath valley. Multi-agency search and rescue teams, including the Indian Army and SDRF, were immediately mobilized to locate the aircraft, while the company's entire helicopter fleet was grounded as a precautionary measure.

A Trans Bharat Aviation helicopter carrying a pilot and five passengers went missing while traveling from Badrinath to Dehradun after losing communication over the Joshimath valley. Multi-agency search and rescue teams, including the Indian Army and SDRF, were immediately mobilized to locate the aircraft, while the company's entire helicopter fleet was grounded as a precautionary measure.

The six people on board a Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd. helicopter that went missing while flying from Badrinath to Dehradun on Friday have been identified as pilot Capt. Himanshu and five male passengers. They are: Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K and H.S. Natraja.

According to initial reports, the passengers were from Bengaluru, although the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) said their details were still being verified.

There has been no immediate confirmation of casualties, while the location of the missing helicopter remains unknown.

The helicopter, bearing call sign VT-HCX, took off from Badrinath at approximately 1.14 pm and was heading towards the Sahastradhara heliport in Dehradun. However, the aircraft lost communication while flying over the Joshimath valley. At the same time, the tracking system could no longer track the helicopter, and its location could not be ascertained.

UCADA Chief Executive Officer Prateek Jain said the helicopter could not be traced after it passed through the vicinity of the Joshimath valley.

"A helicopter belonging to Trans Bharat Aviation departed from Badrinath for the Sahastradhara heliport at 1:14 PM. We have been unable to trace the helicopter's location since it was passing through the vicinity of the Joshimath valley," Jain said.

Immediately after receiving information about the incident, teams from the Indian Army, Chamoli district administration and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were mobilised and dispatched to initiate search and rescue operations.

Jain said an Army unit, district administration officials and SDRF personnel had been sent to the area near the suspected incident site to prepare for rescue operations.

He added that another rescue helicopter would be dispatched to locate the missing aircraft as soon as weather conditions improved.

"According to a nearby Army post, the helicopter was sighted heading into the valley, about one kilometre above the Ghanta Khad temple near Pandukeshwar. We have dispatched two teams—one from the direction of Pandukeshwar and the other from Joshimath—comprising personnel from the Police, NDRF, and the Army. A search and rescue operation is currently underway. The helicopter was carrying a pilot, Himanshu Sabarwal (from Delhi), and five passengers from Karnataka. A comprehensive search is being conducted. A drone has also been deployed from Gopeshwar to assist in the search and rescue efforts. Any preliminary information received will be communicated accordingly," Chamoli SP Surjeet Singh Panwar was quoted as saying.

The UCADA CEO said the location where the helicopter was suspected to have crashed had not yet been traced.

Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, the entire fleet of helicopters belonging to Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd. has been grounded.

UCADA said further details about the incident and those on board would be shared once officially confirmed.

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