Five passengers from Bengaluru were among the six people killed when a helicopter crashed into a hillside near Joshimath in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Friday. The bodies of all six people on board have been found, but are yet to be recovered, police said.

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The helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt. Ltd., was flying from Badrinath to Dehradun when it crashed near the JP Power House, close to Marwari Bridge, around 2.20 pm.

The deceased passengers have been identified as Prathapa, Arun, Shankar Gowda, Sudheer K and H S Natraja. The pilot was identified as Captain Himanshu. The five passengers were from Bengaluru.

Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panwar confirmed that all six people on board had died. He said their bodies had been located but were yet to be retrieved from the crash site.

Rescue teams deployed at crash site

Teams from the Chamoli district administration, police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) were sent to the location to carry out rescue and recovery operations.

The helicopter had taken off from Badrinath at around 1.12 pm and was heading towards Dehradun. It reportedly lost contact while flying over the Joshimath valley, near the Army post atop Hathi Pahad.

The crash was initially suspected after reports emerged of smoke and a burning object in the forested area near Chai village. Authorities subsequently confirmed the accident and launched a joint operation.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had earlier confirmed the crash in a post on X, saying that the district administration, Disaster Management Department and SDRF were carrying out rescue operations. He said he was monitoring the situation and had directed officials to airlift seriously injured passengers to advanced medical facilities.

The incident occurred amid adverse weather conditions in the region, with persistent rainfall and dense cloud cover making search operations difficult.

With ANI inputs