• Helicopter being airlifted by MI-17 chopper crashes in Uttarakhand's Kedarnath

    National
    Helicopter being airlifted by MI-17 chopper crashes in Uttarakhand's Kedarnath
    A rescue team promptly arrived at the scene to assess the situation. Chaubey added that the helicopter had previously made an emergency landing near Kedarnath helipad on May 24 due to technical issues.


    Digital Desk: On Saturday, a helicopter being airlifted to Gauchar airstrip for repairs by an MI-17 aircraft crashed in Kedarnath, officials reported. As the MI-17 was transporting the helicopter, it began to lose balance due to the combined weight of the helicopter and strong winds. To avoid a more dangerous situation, the pilot of the MI-17 made the decision to drop the helicopter in a vacant area of the valley near Tharu camp.

    According to District Tourism Officer Rahul Chaubey, the plan was to transport the helicopter to Gauchar airstrip for repairs. However, shortly after takeoff, the MI-17 struggled with balance issues and had to drop the helicopter before reaching its destination. There were no passengers or cargo on the helicopter at the time of the incident.

    A rescue team promptly arrived at the scene to assess the situation. Chaubey added that the helicopter had previously made an emergency landing near Kedarnath helipad on May 24 due to technical issues.

    The SDRF team is currently at the crash site, and relief efforts are underway. Thankfully, there have been no reported casualties. In a separate incident on August 24, a private helicopter en route from Mumbai to Hyderabad crashed near Paud village in Pune. The helicopter had four people on board, including the captain.

    The captain was injured and hospitalized, while the other three passengers are reported to be stable, according to SP Pankaj Deshmukh of the Pune Rural Police. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, and authorities are working to determine further details.