Helicopter carrying Hindu pilgrims crashes, killing 7

LUCKNOW, India — A helicopter carrying Hindu pilgrims crashed on Sunday in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, killing seven people on board, officials said. The helicopter was headed to Guptkashi, a prominent Hindu pilgrimage site in the Himalayas, from Kedarnath temple town when it crashed minutes after taking off, officials said, on what should have been a 10-minute flight. Nandan Singh Rajwar, a local disaster management official, said authorities have launched a rescue and search operation following the helicopter crash. 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 said the crash was believed to have been caused by poor weather conditions. Officials said the dead included the pilot and pilgrims from the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh and western states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The bodies were badly burned in a fire that followed the crash, they said. India's Civil Aviation Ministry suspended the operations of Aryan Aviation and directed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to oversee all helicopter activity in the region, according to Press Trust of India. The ministry also ordered an investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, the news agency said. The crash comes three days after an Air India passenger plane crashed with the loss of 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 minutes after takeoff Thursday, killing 241 people on board and at least 29 on the ground. One passenger survived. Kedarnath is home to one of the four most sacred Hindu temple shrines and receives tens of thousands of pilgrims each year during the summer season, many of whom use helicopter services due to the difficult mountainous terrain. Helicopter mishaps are not uncommon in the treacherous Kedarnath region, where sudden weather changes and high-altitude flying conditions can pose risks. According to Press Trust, Sunday's was the fifth helicopter accident since the pilgrimage began in the region on April 30. On June 7, a helicopter operating in the Kedarnath Valley made an emergency landing on a highway due to technical fault shortly after taking off. The pilot was injured but all five passengers on board were unharmed. On May 8, a helicopter crashed in Uttarkashi district, killing six people, including the pilot. One person survived.