Six people — the pilot and five passengers from Karnataka — were killed after a helicopter operated by Trans Bharat Aviation crashed into a hillside near Joshimath in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on Friday.The helicopter went down near Chayee village, close to JP Power House and Marwari Bridge, minutes after taking off from Badrinath for Dehradun, killing all six on board.The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will probe the crash, according to a senior official.The five passengers, all from Bengaluru, included a police inspector and the head of an educational institution in Tumakuru. The deceased have been identified as pilot Capt Himanshu Sabharwal (48), a Delhi resident, and passengers Pratap Gowda Bachihalli (41), Arun Salunke (44), VB Shankar Gowda (39), Sudhir K (50) and HS Nataraja (51). Salunke was serving as an inspector in the Karnataka Police, while Nataraja headed the Vidya Bharati Educational Institution in Tumakuru. The bodies of all six occupants were recovered from the wreckage.Bachihalli, one of the passengers, was a native of Bachihalli village in Sakaleshpur. A contractor and businessman, he had been living in Bengaluru for several years. He is survived by his wife and two children.The helicopter, bearing call sign VT-HCX, took off from the Badrinath civil helipad for Sahastradhara in Dehradun at 1.12 pm. Its radar transmission link was lost near Joshimath two minutes later, at 1.14 pm, Chamoli Superintendent of Police Surjeet Singh Panwar said in a self-recorded video statement.The helicopter subsequently lost communication over the Joshimath valley, and its tracking system stopped transmitting its location. Personnel at a nearby Army post reported seeing the aircraft heading into the valley, about 1 km above the Bhandakand Temple near Pandukeshwar. An Army team later spotted smoke rising from the helicopter and saw it descending rapidly in the region.The sighting led to an extensive search operation, with joint teams of the Army, police and the State Disaster Response Force moving from Pandukeshwar and Joshimath. Two additional helicopters from the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority were deployed for aerial reconnaissance, while drone teams were sent from Gopeshwar to locate the wreckage. The entire fleet of Trans Bharat Aviation was grounded as a precautionary measure.The cause of the crash remains unknown, with weather conditions likely to come under scrutiny. The India Meteorological Department had issued an orange alert for Chamoli on Friday, forecasting thunderstorms, hail, gusty winds and heavy rain. The region had been experiencing intense rain and extensive cloud cover, with snow reported in some areas. However, no link between the weather and the crash has been established.The accident adds to Uttarakhand’s record of helicopter crashes. Ministry of Civil Aviation data for 2020-2025 shows that the state accounted for seven of the 12 helicopter crashes reported across India during the period, claiming 21 lives. Maharashtra recorded four crashes resulting in seven deaths, while one fatal crash in Chhattisgarh claimed two lives, according to the ministry.The latest crash comes after two emergency landings involving Char Dham helicopters were reported in Uttarakhand earlier this month. One helicopter made an emergency landing in Rudraprayag due to poor weather, while another was forced to land in Tehri following a technical problem.