India suffers more heartache as at least seven killed in horror helicopter crash just days after Air India tragedy

Daily Mail​

10 hours ago

India has suffered yet more heartache, after at least seven people were killed in a horrific helicopter crash today just a few days after the country suffered its worst plane crash this century.
A helicopter carrying Hindu pilgrims from the Kedarnath temple town in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand to Guptkashi, a prominent Hindu pilgrimage site in the Himalayas, crashed just a few minutes after taking off.
The journey should've taken just 10 minutes, but crashed in a dense forest area several times away from the landing site at 5.30am local time.
Authorities are now in the middle of a large search and rescue operation.
The tragic dead include the pilot, as well as pilgrims from the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh and western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat.
Their bodies were reportedly badly burned in a fire that engulfed the aircraft following the fire.
Every summer, tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims travel to Kedarnath.
Many of them use helicopters to avoid the arduous trek through the difficult mountain terrain.
but sadly, accident are all too common, and are often caused by unpredictable weather and high-altitude flying conditions.
It comes just days after Air India flight AI171 crashed into a medical college in the city of Ahmedabad minutes after taking off.
The crash of the London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner is one of the deadliest in terms of the number of British nationals killed, and the first involving a 787.
The sole survivor of the Air India disaster has revealed how he 'just walked out' of the plane moments before it exploded into a fireball - as he admitted it is a 'miracle' that he has been left with only minor injuries.
British national Viswash Kumar Ramesh, 40, said that he was in India with his brother for the best part of a year and was returning to London, where his family live, on the Gatwick-bound aircraft on Thursday.
He was seated in 11A on the doomed flight from Ahmedabad, which is said to be one of the worst in India's aviation history, having claimed the lives of 279 people so far.
Among the victims believed to be dead, which includes 53 British nationals, is the 40-year-old's brother Ajay Kumar, 35, who was sat on the other side of the aisle in seat 11J perished in the fireball explosion.
Vishwash, who is being treated at the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, just a short distance from where the plane crashed into buildings, has spoken of the moment he escaped from the burning plane.
While sitting up on a hospital bed, he told DD India that he was 'feeling better than yesterday' and that the 'treatment is going good'.
Still in shock, he admitted he 'can't explain' everything that he witnessed as the plane plummeted to the ground.
He managed to escape after his side of the plane fell onto the ground of a floor building, forcing his way out of the plane past a broken door, before being assisted by locals and taken to hospital in an ambulance.
'The emergency door was broken, my seat is broken,' he said.
The plane momentarily disappeared from view behind trees and buildings before a massive fireball erupted on the horizon in this horrifying clip
Asked if he escaped the plane by jumping to the ground, he replied: 'I am not jumping. I just walked out innit.'
'It's a miracle,' he said when discussing his survival and injuries.
His doctor added: 'He is having minor injuries only. He has some abrasions over his left forearm and swelling over left eyelid and over the eyes.
'Chest and abdomen is clear, no lung fractures present. The patient is vitally stable.'
He added Vishwash had not complained of nausea, vomiting or any sort of fever.