A helicopter heading back from one of Hinduism’s holiest shrines never cleared the Joshimath valley.
All six people aboard a Trans Bharat Aviation Pvt Ltd helicopter were killed when it went down on a hillside near Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjit Singh Panwar confirmed. The aircraft, registered VT-HCX, lifted off from the temple town of Badrinath at about 1:14 p.m. for the Sahastradhara heliport in Dehradun. It crashed around 2:20 p.m. near the Marwari Bridge, close to the J.P. Power House.
The weather had not kept it on the ground. The helicopter “had been cleared for take-off after weather conditions were found favourable,” said Prateek Jain, CEO of the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA). The India Meteorological Department had an orange alert out for Chamoli that day, warning of thunderstorms with lightning, hail and gusty winds of 40-50 kmph, with rain and snowfall forecast along the Badrinath-Joshimath route.
The flight lost communication at about 1:30 p.m. while crossing the Joshimath valley, UCADA said, and its tracking system stopped showing the aircraft’s location. The wreckage was found near Chai village.
The Five Men From Bengaluru
The pilot was Himanshu Sabharwal, 48, who lived in Shalimar Bagh in West Delhi. The helicopter was returning after ferrying pilgrims to Badrinath Dham.
His five passengers were all residents of Bengaluru: Arun Salunke, 44, a police inspector with the Bengaluru Police Crime Branch; HS Nagaraja, 51; Prathapa Bachihally Ningarajan, 41; Sudheer K, 49; and Shankargowda VB, 39, a lawyer.
The Army Team That Confirmed Six Deaths
A team from the Army’s 9 Independent Mountain Brigade climbed to the accident site at about 3:30 p.m. and confirmed that all six had died, according to the district disaster management officer. Two more helicopters and drones were sent up to pinpoint the wreckage.
Teams from the Chamoli district administration, the 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 and made aerial surveillance difficult. Chamoli District Magistrate Gaurav Kumar said teams moved as soon as word of the crash reached officials.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said a joint operation had been launched with the district administration, the disaster management department and the SDRF, and he instructed officials to airlift anyone critically injured to advanced medical facilities.
“I am continuously monitoring the entire incident,” Dhami said. The chief minister’s office said 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.
Two Crashes, Seven Dead Each Time
Badrinath is one of four sacred sites on the Char Dham pilgrimage circuit, alongside Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri. The temples open for only part of the year because of harsh winter conditions, and many devotees travel through steep Himalayan valleys to reach them. Helicopter services have become increasingly popular among pilgrims trying to avoid the hardest stretches of that journey, and their safety has come under scrutiny after a series of accidents. Two Char Dham helicopters made emergency landings earlier in October 2026 — one in Rudraprayag because of weather, another in Tehri because of a technical problem.
Rescue teams recovered all six bodies after the wreckage was located, Panwar said. Authorities grounded the entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation as a precaution, and the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau will investigate. The exact cause has not been established, and investigators have yet to determine whether the weather or a technical issue contributed.
Seven people were killed in June 2025 when a helicopter carrying pilgrims crashed near Kedarnath. Several other accidents during that pilgrimage season prompted aviation authorities to tighten safety checks and restrict some operations. Seven died on the same route in October 2022, near Garud Chatti.