According to the Associated Press, a helicopter carrying Hindu pilgrims crashed early Sunday in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, resulting in the deaths of seven people on board.
The chopper was en route to Guptkashi, a prominent Hindu pilgrimage site in the Himalayas, from Kedarnath temple town when it went down. The accident occurred within minutes of take-off, on what was meant to be a brief 10-minute flight.
This tragic incident follows closely on the heels of another aviation disaster, where an Air India flight fell from the sky just three days prior, killing at least 270 people in Gujarat state. The London-bound Boeing 787 struck a medical college hostel in a residential area of the northwestern city of Ahmedabad shortly after take-off, resulting in the deaths of 241 individuals on board and at least 29 on the ground, with only one passenger surviving.
Nandan Singh Rajwar, a local disaster management official, reported that authorities have launched a rescue and search operation in response to the helicopter crash and are expected to review operational protocols for flights in the region.
The helicopter, operated by Aryan Aviation, a private helicopter service company, went down in a forested area near the Kedarnath pilgrimage route at around 5:30 a.m. local time. Officials believe that poor weather conditions may have contributed to the crash.
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