A major helicopter crash was averted in Kedarnath Valley on Saturday after a chopper carrying six people onboard made an emergency landing on a highway due to a technical snag shortly after take off. All the devotees and the pilot were reported safe.

A helicopter belonging to Crystal Aviation Private Limited, providing air service to the devotees in Kedarnath valley, had a narrow escape on Saturday as it was forced to make an emergency landing immediately after taking off from Sirsi Helipad near Guptkashi in the valley.

Advertisement

The heli had to come down immediately owing to some technical snag. This averted a major accident. The landing became so difficult that the helicopter could not return to the Sirsi Helipad. It was forced to land on the adjacent highway.

According to the officials of the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA), five Kedarnath shrine-bound devotees other than pilot were on-board the helicopter when the flying machine had to make a forced landing.

All the passengers and pilot were taken out safely from the heli that hit and damaged a car on the roadside. No casualty was reported.

The UCADA officials informed that the cause of the forced landing by the Helicopter was being investigated. Meanwhile, the emergency landing of the helicopter has not impacted the scheduled flights from Sirsi and other nearby helipads in the area.

It’s notable that two helicopters belonging to private heli service providers in Kedar Valley have crashed this Chardham season killing six devotees. In addition to this, three emergency landings have also been reported in the past month.