Kedarnath chopper crash: Report reveals pilot's last words - 'Cannot see anything, turning ...'

DEHRADUN: "Cannot spot anything, turning…"—these were the last radio-transmitted words of the Aryan Aviation aviator moments earlier his chopper crashed adjacent Gaurikund en way to Kedarnath connected June 15 this year, sidesplitting each 7 radical connected board.

The line, quoted successful the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's (AAIB) interim report, captures the split-second nonaccomplishment of visibility that led the Bell 407 to deed a hillside during an early-morning shuttle sortie.The helicopter, registered arsenic VT-BKA, was the archetypal to run that greeting nether Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA's) slot strategy that permits flights from sunrise. The pilot—Captain Rajveer Singh Chauhan, a retired Army aviator from Jaipur—arrived astatine Guptkashi astir 4:30am, underwent a breathalyser test, checked CCTV feeds of the vale weather, and completed pre-flight inspections.

The chopper took disconnected astatine 5:10am and reached Kedarnath successful astir 10 minutes.After offloading passengers, the craft departed Kedarnath with six passengers connected the instrumentality leg. As per protocol, helicopters exiting the vale indispensable support 9,000 ft successful the area, which is notorious for fast-moving, unpredictable unreality banks.Two helicopters—VT-TBF and VT-TBC—were down VT-BKA successful the departure sequence. As the Aryan Aviation chopper neared the vale exit, the aviator radioed that clouds had blocked the route.

Seconds aboriginal came his past transmission: "Cannot spot anything, turning…" No distress telephone followed.The craft ne'er reached Guptkashi.The aviator of VT-TBC aboriginal told investigators helium heard the transmission and avoided the aforesaid unreality wide by descending to a little altitude. CCTV footage from 3 vale cameras confirmed that the exit constituent was engulfed by drifting unreality screen astatine the time. The 2 helicopters pursuing VT-BKA managed to exit safely utilizing the little path.Local authorities soon alerted the relation that the chopper had crashed into a hillside adjacent Gaurikund and burst into flames connected impact, sidesplitting each passengers and the pilot.Those who died included aviator Captain Chauhan; Vikram Rawat, 45, a Badri-Kedar temple committee representative; Vinod Devi, 66, and Trishti Singh, 19, from Uttar Pradesh; and Maharashtra residents Rajkumar Jaiswal, 41, his woman Shraddha, 35, and their two-year-old girl Kashi.

Captain Chauhan's woman is simply a serving Lt Colonel successful the Indian Army.The AAIB study highlighted important shortcomings successful upwind monitoring. "Kedarnath helipad has an automated upwind instrument, but it does not grounds information and provides nary unreality information. No upwind updates were shared connected the operators' WhatsApp radical that morning, leaving pilots babelike mostly connected visibility checks done CCTV cameras," the study said."There is nary dedicated Met installation successful the Kedarnath valley," the study further noted. The automated instrumentality streams real-time accusation connected wind, visibility, temperature, pressure, humidity and dew point, but not unreality conditions—crucial successful a vale wherever abrupt clouding is common.A UCADA information staffer periodically circulates screenshots of the unrecorded provender to operators, but investigators said this strategy was insufficient for harmless operations.Following the accident, DGCA revised its 2023 circular connected Kedarnath shuttle operations. The updated rules mandate a dedicated power centre staffed with an in-charge, ATC serviceman and IMD meteorological support, on with minimum prescribed formation times for each shuttle sector.The AAIB's last study is awaited.