Seven dead as chopper crashes near Gaurikund in Rudraprayag

In a tragic incident on Sunday morning, seven people were killed when a helicopter operated by Aryan Aviation crashed near Gaurikund in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district.

The chopper was en route from Kedarnath to Guptkashi when it lost contact with authorities shortly after takeoff.

According to officials, the helicopter took off from the Kedarnath helipad at around 5:20 AM but soon went off the radar. Inspector Anirudh Bhandari of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) confirmed, “All seven people on board the helicopter have died.”

The victims have been identified as the pilot, Captain Rajveer Singh Chauhan, and six passengers: Rajkumar Suresh Jaiswal (41), Shradha Rajkumar Jaiswal (35), and their 23-month-old child Kashi, all residents of Maharashtra; Vikram (46), a resident of Rudraprayag; and Vinod Dev (66) and Tusti Singh (29), both from Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh.

District Tourism Officer Rahul Chaubey, who also serves as the nodal officer for helicopter services in the region, said the aircraft went missing amid poor weather conditions.

“We received information early this morning about the missing helicopter. A search operation was immediately launched. Preliminary information suggests the helicopter encountered sudden adverse weather while returning to its base in Guptkashi. The pilot tried to maneuver the aircraft out of the valley, but it tragically crashed during the attempt,” Chaubey stated.

Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the crash. More details are awaited.