Uttarakhand is a hilly area.
Chopper accidents usually occur here because of a technical snag or inclement weather. There had been quite a few choppers crashes in Uttarakhand in the past.
During 2013’s ecological disaster, six members on board an Army helicopter were killed when they were heading towards Kedarnath to lift the disaster-hit victims, to evacuate them to safer places. The chopper had crashed in Uttarkashi while carrying food and water packets for the calamity hit people of Uttarkashi villages. Prior to the accident, they had saved a good number of people by safely evacuating them from the deadly Kedarnath.
Kedarnath was then full of tales of grief and sorrow as several hundred people had died then at the site due to the overflowing of the Chorabari Taal. It was overflowing several hundred metres above Kedarnath shrine due to massive cloud bursts.
However, this accident in Uttarkashi was because the chopper blades got entangled in the electricity cables. This was due to the chopper hitting the electricity cables while it was coming down for the distribution of relief materials to the inhabitants of the seven villages. After minutely examining the accident this has been duly confirmed by the police and disaster management authorities.
The accident was so fateful that all the three crew members i.e. the pilot Rajneesh Lal, co-pilot, and one more staff were literally burnt as they could not get the opportunity to even open their parachute for an emergency landing. The crew members were really hard lucked. Sounds shocking and scary that the crew members of the choppers who were on a mission to quench the thirst and hunger of victims of the Uttarkashi calamity hit villages of Tikochi, Arakot, Maakuri, etc. had themselves left for their heavenly abode in such a dastardly accident.
The nearby people and the police including the disaster management personnel retrieved the fully burnt bodies of these ill-fated chopper’s crew members. May the Almighty accord peace to the departed souls.
Meanwhile, the chief minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat has announced through a tweet, Rs 15 lakhs financial compensation to each of the deceased crew members bereaved family.
The former Congress chief of Uttarakhand Kishore Upadhyay has welcomed the CM’s decision wholeheartedly and has also urged him to similarly compensate the natural calamity hit people of the state.