Dehradun: One person was killed and seven others injured when an eight-seater chopper carrying pilgrims from Badrinath to Haridwar crashed near the Bardinath shrine in Uttarakhand on Saturday morning.
The Agusta 119 chopper belonging to Krestal Aviation had eight people on board — five passengers, two pilots and an engineer. It crashed at 7.45am while carrying a pilgrim family back to Haridwar from the shrine after their ‘darshan’, said a police official.
The engineer of the chopper – Vikram Lamba, a resident of Assam, fearing for his life jumped mid-air and was sliced by the rotor of the helicopter. He died on the spot.
The pilgrim family was from Vadodra in Gujarat and after first aid they have been sent by road to Haridwar.
The passengers who sustained minor injuries have been identified as Jashodaben, Naveen Bhai Patel, Leela Ben Patel, Harish Bhai and Ramesh Bhai.
The pilot Sanjay Vange is from Pune and co-pilot Alka Shukla hails from Kanpur. Both are safe. They escaped with minor injuries.
Officials informed that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has been informed of the accident.
DGCA Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident.