A helicopter carrying five passengers and a pilot back from a Himalayan temple town never made it out of the Joshimath valley.
Rescue workers recovered the bodies of all six people killed in the crash near Joshimath, in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, and airlifted them to AIIMS Rishikesh on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 1, two days after the Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd aircraft went down on a hillside.
The helicopter, registered VT-HCX, lifted off from the temple town of Badrinath at about 1:14 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. Its destination was the Sahastradhara heliport in Dehradun, and the aircraft came down near the Marwari Bridge, a short distance from the J.P. Power House, on the return leg of a flight that had ferried pilgrims to Badrinath Dham. Searchers found the wreckage near Chai village. Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panwar confirmed that all six aboard were killed.
The Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) said controllers lost communication with the aircraft at about 1:30 p.m., while it was crossing the Joshimath valley, and that the tracking system stopped showing its location. Reports of the crash reached rescuers at around 2:20 p.m. Prateek Jain, the authority’s CEO, said the helicopter “had been cleared for take-off after weather conditions were found favourable.”
An Orange Alert Over Chamoli
The India Meteorological Department had issued an orange alert for Chamoli that day, warning of thunderstorms with lightning, hail and gusty winds of 40-50 kph (25-31 mph). Forecasters also predicted rain and snowfall along the Badrinath-Joshimath route.
A team from the Army’s 9 Independent Mountain Brigade began climbing to the accident site at about 3:30 p.m. and confirmed all six deaths, according to the district disaster management officer. Officials sent up two more helicopters and drones to pinpoint the wreckage. Crews from the Chamoli district administration, police, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), the Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) worked the hillside, and medical personnel were dispatched to the area. Steady rain and low cloud cover cut visibility, which made aerial surveillance difficult. Teams moved as soon as word of the crash reached officials, Chamoli District Magistrate Gaurav Kumar said.
The district administration, the disaster management department and the SDRF had launched a joint operation, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said, and he instructed officials to airlift anyone critically injured to advanced medical facilities. “I am continuously monitoring the entire incident,” Dhami said. According to the chief minister’s office, Dhami and Disaster Management and Rehabilitation Minister Madan Kaushik took immediate cognizance of the crash and told officials to start relief and rescue work without delay.
An Inspector and a Lawyer Aboard
Captain Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, of Shalimar Bagh in West Delhi flew the helicopter. The five passengers were friends from Karnataka traveling together on a Char Dham pilgrimage that took in Badrinath and the nearby Mana region: Arun Salunke, 44, an inspector with the Bengaluru Police Central Crime Branch technical cell; H.S. Nataraj, from Tumakuru and associated with an educational institution; Prathapa Bachihally Ningaraju, 41, a businessman from Hassan district; Sudheer K, 49, an advocate; and Shankargowda VB, 39, an advocate associated with the Tumakuru region.
Selfie videos recorded inside the helicopter by passenger Prathapa Bachihally Ningaraju shortly before the Oct. 30 crash have since surfaced, showing him smiling with the Himalayan landscape behind him.
Trans Bharat Grounds Its Fleet
Trans Bharat Aviation grounded its entire fleet as a precaution, and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau will investigate. The probe is expected to examine weather conditions, the pilot’s flying history, the aircraft’s maintenance records and the operator’s compliance with aviation safety requirements. Investigators have not established the exact cause, nor have they determined whether the weather or a technical issue contributed. Dhami offered condolences over the loss of lives and directed authorities to conduct a detailed investigation into the crash.
Scrutiny Along the Char Dham Circuit
Badrinath is one of four sacred sites on the Char Dham pilgrimage circuit, along with Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. Harsh winter conditions keep the temples open for only part of the year, and many devotees reach them by traveling through steep Himalayan valleys. Helicopter services have grown increasingly popular among pilgrims looking to avoid the hardest stretches of the journey.
Helicopter safety in the region has come under scrutiny after a series of accidents. Earlier in October 2026, two Char Dham helicopters made emergency landings, one in Rudraprayag because of weather and another in Tehri because of a technical problem. A helicopter carrying pilgrims crashed near Kedarnath in June 2025, killing seven. Several other accidents that pilgrimage season pushed aviation authorities to tighten safety checks and restrict some operations. In October 2022, seven people died in a crash near Garud Chatti on the Kedarnath route.
