Helicopter crashes in northern India, killing all on board
NEW DELHI: Seven people were killed Sunday morning in a helicopter crash in the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.
Officer of Rudraprayag's Disaster Management, Nandan Singh Rajwar, told Press Trust of India that the helicopter, which was flying between Kedarnath and Guptkashi, lost contact around 5:20am and crashed shortly after takeoff in Gauri Kund amid adverse weather conditions and low visibility.
There were six people on board, in addition to the pilot, all from different Indian states.
Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said in a post on the X platform that emergency response teams, in cooperation with local authorities, are conducting extensive search and rescue operations at the crash site.
The incident comes days after another air disaster in India, when an Air India plane crashed while en route from Ahmedabad to London, killing all but one person on board.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Qatar Tribune
14 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Helicopter crashes in northern India, killing all on board
NEW DELHI: Seven people were killed Sunday morning in a helicopter crash in the mountainous northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. Officer of Rudraprayag's Disaster Management, Nandan Singh Rajwar, told Press Trust of India that the helicopter, which was flying between Kedarnath and Guptkashi, lost contact around 5:20am and crashed shortly after takeoff in Gauri Kund amid adverse weather conditions and low visibility. There were six people on board, in addition to the pilot, all from different Indian states. Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Pushkar Singh Dhami, said in a post on the X platform that emergency response teams, in cooperation with local authorities, are conducting extensive search and rescue operations at the crash site. The incident comes days after another air disaster in India, when an Air India plane crashed while en route from Ahmedabad to London, killing all but one person on board.
Qatar Tribune
02-06-2025
- Qatar Tribune
30 killed in India's northeast as rains trigger floods, landslides
At least 30 people have died in India's northeast after relentless monsoon rains caused floods and landslides over the weekend, Indian officials and media reports say. Authorities on Sunday said at least eight people were killed in Assam state and nine more in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, many of them buried under earth and debris dislodged by the torrential downpour. Three members of one family were killed in a mudslide in Assam's Guwahati, officials said, as heavy rains led to flooding in many areas of the city, leading to long power outages and prompting authorities to shut schools and colleges on Saturday. Authorities disconnected electricity in several areas to reduce the risk of electrocution, Assam's Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. In Mizoram state, five people lost their lives in a landslide, while six others died in Meghalaya state. Officials in Nagaland and Tripura states also confirmed two deaths. Meghalaya's Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma ordered emergency teams to stay vigilant, 'especially in landslide-prone and low-lying areas', he warned in a public statement. The Indian Army launched a large-scale rescue effort in Manipur state, evacuating hundreds. 'People have been shifted to safer places,' the army said. 'Food, water and essential medicines were provided.' The downpour has continued for three straight days, and India's weather agency has forecast more heavy rains in the region in the coming days as it issued a red alert for several northeastern districts. Rivers across the region, including the Brahmaputra, which originates in the Himalayas and flows through India into Bangladesh, have breached their banks, submerging vast areas and cutting off access to many communities. Floods and landslides are common during India's June-to-September monsoon season, which is vital for agriculture but often deadly. Dozens of people die each year as rainfall overwhelms fragile infrastructure across the world's most populous country. Last month, Mumbai was deluged by rain nearly two weeks before its usual beginning, the earliest monsoon arrival in the capital city of the western state of Maharashtra in over two decades, according to meteorological officials. Scientists say climate change is altering weather patterns across South Asia, but the precise effects on the monsoon system remain unclear. (Agencies)
Al Jazeera
02-03-2025
- Al Jazeera
India avalanche rescue operation ends as eighth and final body found
Rescuers recovered the eighth and final body from the site of an avalanche in a remote area of northern India, the army has said, marking the end of a marathon operation in subzero temperatures. More than 50 workers were submerged under snow and debris after the avalanche hit a construction camp on Friday near Mana village on the border with Tibet in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. Authorities had revised down the number of workers on site at the time of the avalanche from 55 to 54 after one worker, previously believed to be buried, was found to have safely made his way home before the avalanche hit. By Saturday, rescuers had managed to pull out 50 people, but four later succumbed to their injuries, according to an Indian army statement. By Sunday, rescue teams had recovered the remaining bodies, the army said, adding that they had used a drone-based detection system and a rescue dog to assist in its search operations. Many of those trapped were migrant labourers working on a highway expansion project covering a 50km (31-mile) stretch from Mana, the last Indian village before the China border, to Mana Pass. They were living on site in steel containers considered stronger than tents and capable of withstanding harsh weather. As the ground beneath them shook, the container that construction worker Anil and his colleagues were in began to slide down. 'At first we did not understand what was happening, but when we looked out of the window of the containers, we saw piles of snow all around,' Anil, 20, told the AFP news agency. He said that the roofs of the containers began bending inwards. 'The way we were engulfed in snow, we had no hope of surviving,' he said, adding that being alive felt 'like a dream'. His colleague Vipan Kumar thought 'this was the end' when he found himself unable to move as he struggled for air under the thick layer of snow. 'I heard a loud roar, like thunder … before I could react, everything went dark,' he told the Times of India newspaper. The ecologically fragile Himalayan region, increasingly affected by global warming, is prone to avalanches and flash floods. In 2021, nearly 100 people died in Uttarakhand when a huge chunk of a glacier fell into a river, triggering flash floods. Devastating monsoon floods and landslides in 2013 killed 6,000 people and led to calls for a review of development projects in the state. In 2022, an avalanche also killed 27 trainee mountaineers in Uttarakhand, while a glacier that burst in 2021 triggered a flash flood and left more than 200 people dead.
