A smile for the camera before take-off, then a view of the snow-covered Himalayas. These were the last two videos 41-year-old Pratap Bachihalli Ningaraju sent to his family from inside the helicopter on Friday, as it flew from Badrinath, one of Hinduism’s most sacred pilgrimage sites, perched nearly 11,000 feet above sea level, to Sahastradhara, near Dehra Dun.
The first video captured Pratap smiling at the camera. The second offered a glimpse of the snow-clad mountains outside. Sent at around 1.12 pm, they would be his last messages to his family.
Less than two minutes later, the helicopter lost contact. At around 2.20 pm, its mangled remains were spotted in a village near Joshimath, its destination.
Pratap and five others, including the pilot, were declared dead. Pratap and the four other passengers — Arun Salunkhe, Sudhir K, HS Nataraj and Shankargowda VB — were all from Karnataka. The pilot, Captain Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, was from Delhi. Salunkhe, 44, was an inspector with the Bengaluru Police’s Central Crime Branch.
The privately operated helicopter, operated by Trans Bharat Aviation, lost contact less than two minutes after take-off, Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panwar said.
The helicopter, bearing call sign VT-HCX, was flying over the Joshimath valley when communication was lost. The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) said its tracking system also stopped receiving the helicopter’s location.
According to the District Emergency Operations Centre (DEOC), an Army Signal Centre team spotted the helicopter in the Hathi Parvat area. Smoke was seen rising from it as it rapidly lost altitude.
The bodies of the pilot and the five passengers were found near the wreckage in Chai village. However, officials said they could not be brought back immediately because of darkness and the difficult terrain. Additional District Magistrate Vivek Prakash said the bodies would be taken to Joshimath town on Saturday, where post-mortems would be conducted.
SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATION
Soon after receiving information about the helicopter’s disappearance, joint teams of the police, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and Army were dispatched from Pandukeshwar and Jyotirmath to search for it, SP Panwar said. Drone teams were also deployed from the district headquarters in Gopeshwar.
The DEOC said an aerial reconnaissance of the crash site was carried out using one recce helicopter and one Retriever helicopter of UCADA. An SDRF team was also dispatched from Sahastradhara.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed grief over the loss of lives and directed officials to conduct a detailed investigation into the cause of the crash. He also asked the district administration to extend all possible assistance to the families of the deceased and ensure that relief arrangements were made promptly.
Dhami later held a review meeting and instructed officials to carry out rescue and relief operations on a war footing, using all available resources.
FLEET GROUNDED, PROBE ORDERED
The India-based Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will probe the crash. A senior official said an investigation team had left for the site.
UCADA CEO Prateek Jain told PTI that the entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd had been grounded as a precautionary measure.
The crash site is around 45 km from the Badrinath shrine. A helicopter journey from Badrinath to Dehradun takes about an hour, while the road distance is around 326 km.
AVIATION SAFETY CONCERNS IN CHAR DHAM SECTOR
The crash comes amid concerns over helicopter safety in Uttarakhand’s Char Dham sector. More than 21.55 lakh pilgrims have visited Badrinath since the shrine’s portals opened in April this year. As many as 87 pilgrims visiting the shrine have died during the period.
Badrinath is one of the four shrines that make up Uttarakhand’s Char Dham circuit, along with Yamunotri, Gangotri and Kedarnath. Helicopter services for the pilgrimage are usually offered in packages covering two or all four shrines. Packages covering two shrines cost around Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.15 lakh per person. In both types of packages, Badrinath is the final destination before the helicopter returns to Dehradun.
The government told the Rajya Sabha in July last year that 12 accidents involving registered helicopter operators had occurred between 2020 and 2025, killing 30 people. Seven of those accidents took place in Uttarakhand.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had initiated additional surveillance and safety audits of helicopter operations during the Char Dham Yatra.
An AAIB analysis recorded nine occurrences in the Char Dham sector between 2015 and 2025 — eight accidents and one serious incident. At least one accident or serious incident was reported every year from 2022 onwards.
There were four accidents in 2024, two of them fatal, the highest number recorded in a single year, the AAIB said.
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Inputs from Sagay Raj and PTI
