Helicopter from Badrinath crashes near Joshimath, all six on board killed including pilot

A major accident occurred in the Joshimath area of Uttarakhand on Friday (October 30, 2026). A chartered helicopter of Trans Bharat Aviation, carrying passengers from Badrinath Dham towards Dehradun, crashed near Joshimath. Bad weather is reported to have caused the accident. All six people on board, including the pilot, were killed.

The helicopter, registration VT-HCX, belonging to Trans Bharat Aviation Private Limited, had left Badrinath at 1.14 pm for the Sahastradhara helipad in Dehradun. While passing over the Joshimath valley and the Chai village area, the weather suddenly worsened. Visibility dropped sharply and the helicopter lost contact with ATC and the ground tracking system. Soon afterwards it also disappeared from radar.

Thick plumes of smoke were then seen at a spot near Chai village. Local residents and the Army informed the administration at once.

According to the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority, as soon as the helicopter was found to be missing, teams of the Chamoli district administration, the Indian Army and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were sent out for search and rescue. Teams of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were also sent to the site. The joint rescue team has reached the spot after overcoming major obstacles posed by the weather, and the work of recovering the bodies and searching the area is under way.

According to the list released by the authority, the helicopter carried the pilot, Captain Himanshu, and five passengers. The passengers named are Pratap, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudhir K and H. S. Natraj. Separately, the dead are listed as Chandrakant, Atharva, Aakash, Raj Shri and Dinesh, and it was said that an experienced pilot was among them.

As a precaution after the accident, the entire helicopter fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation Private Limited has been grounded temporarily.

The weather department had already issued an orange alert for heavy rain and bad weather on October 30 in the districts of Chamoli, Nainital, Pithoragarh, Bageshwar and Champawat. Winds of 40 to 50 km per hour and hailstorms had also been forecast. Discussion has now begun over whether the decision to fly was taken despite this.

Aviation expert Captain Ehsan Khalid said that flying under an orange alert is not a routine matter but a crucial assessment, known as a safety risk assessment. It weighs the terrain, the weather conditions, the pilot's ability to fly in the area and the pilot's experience.