india

Updated: Aug 23, 2019 19:02 IST

Two days after a helicopter carrying relief material in heavy rain affected areas of Uttarkashi district crashed killing all three people on board, another helicopter carrying similar relief made an emergency landing on Friday afternoon in the same district, officials said.

The two people on board including the pilot and co-pilot sustained minor injuries and are safe, officials added.

“The incident happened on Friday afternoon at around 3 pm. The chopper belonging to Aryan Airways was flying under the state civil aviation department and was involved in ongoing rescue operations by providing relief material to victims. It was heading towards Chiva village from Arakot base camp with relief material when it made the emergency landing near a river in Lagwada area,” Praveen Alok, media in- charge, state disaster response force (SDRF) said.

He claimed only two persons were on board, the pilot Sushant Jeena, 51, a resident of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh ad co-pilot, Ajit Singh, 31, a resident of Haryana.

“Both of them were rescued by teams comprising SDRF and local police. They had sustained minor injuries and are safe,” he said.

On the reason behind the incident, he said, “The helicopter crew made the emergency landing due to a wire which was most probably a trolley wire.”

“Like the earlier incident, this one too was caused by a trolley wire. So far it seems that the pilot couldn’t see the trolley-wire and hit it. He then immediately decided to land right there as he could not fly it to a safe place for landing,” said Alok.

Confirming the incident, Ravi Bijarnia, media in-charge of the Information Bureau, state government, said, “A helicopter has left from Dehradun to bring the two injured helicopter crew here for treatment. Both of them have been given first aid and are stable.”

Earlier on Friday morning, rescue teams airlifted two pregnant women aged 25 and 21 respectively, from heavy rain affected Arakot area of Uttarkashi to Dehradun.

Heavy rains have killed at least 15 people and destroyed property worth at least Rs 80-100 crore in Uttarakhand’s Uttarkashi, the worst-hit district in the state, in the past few days. The torrential rains had hit about 12 villages including the worst affected Arakot, Makodi, Tikochi and Sanail villages in Uttarkashi, about 150 km away from Dehradun on Saturday and Sunday, damaging or washing away 20 houses.

Several people were reported to be buried under debris as rescue teams launched efforts to search for them. Uttarakhand is among the north Indian states that have been reeling under the impact of incessant rains causing large-scale damage.