NEW DELHI, Aug 31: A defective helicopter being airlifted from Uttarakhand’s Kedarnath to Gauchar by an Indian Air Force MI-17 chopper crashed on Saturday morning after the pilot released it on losing balance, officials said.
The private helicopter crashed into the Mandakini River in Lincholi and no one was injured in the accident, officials said. The helicopter was being taken to the Gauchar airstrip with the help of the MI-17 aircraft for repair. The pilot, however, dropped the chopper at a vacant spot when the MI-17 started losing balance, Rudraprayag district tourism officer Rahul Chaubey said.
“As soon as the MI-17 covered a little distance, it started losing balance due to the weight of the helicopter and wind and the pilot had to drop it near the Tharu camp,” Mr Chaubey said in an official statement. There was no passenger or luggage on the helicopter, he said, adding that a rescue team reached the spot after the crash.
He also said the private helicopter had made an emergency landing near the Kedarnath helipad due to some technical faults in May. The chopper was earlier ferrying passengers to Kedarnath temple. There has been a sharp drop in the number of pilgrims going to Kedarnath since July 31 due to extensive damage caused by heavy rain to the trek route to the Himalayan temple.
Rain-induced landslides along the route from Gaurikund to Kedarnath had left thousands of people stranded, prompting the administration to launch a massive rescue operation aided by the Air Force’s Chinook and MI17 helicopters, besides private choppers. Though the trek route had remained largely suspended in August, the pilgrims arrived at the temple on helicopters. More than 33 lakh pilgrims have so far visited the Himalayan temples since the “Chaar-dham Yatra” began on May 10 this year.
(Manas Dasgupta)
