New Delhi: Nature's ongoing fury in Uttarakhand has claimed a completely new victim: a helicopter parked safely at a helipad firmly chained to the ground. A private company's six-seater Eurocopter parked near Hemkunt Sahib was lost when a swollen Alaknanda submerged the helipad and swept the chopper away, aviation authorities in Delhi said.
The chopper was doing sorties from June 9 between Govind Ghat and Gagariya helipad, from where Hemkunt Sahib is a six-km trek. "The B3 chopper was flying between the two points last Saturday. Then it started pouring and it was parked at the Gagariya as it couldn't return to Joshimath. Since very strong winds were blowing, the chopper was chained to the ground. The last anyone saw of it was on Sunday night as the river changed course and swept the chopper away," said sources.
There have been reports that its wreckage was spotted several kilometres downstream in Joshimath but the company could not confirm the same. The ferocity of the flooding can be gauged from the fact that the Gagariya helipad was built in 2001 and did not ever get even flooded. "Now it just seems to be the river everywhere," said a company official.
18/06/13 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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The chopper was doing sorties from June 9 between Govind Ghat and Gagariya helipad, from where Hemkunt Sahib is a six-km trek. "The B3 chopper was flying between the two points last Saturday. Then it started pouring and it was parked at the Gagariya as it couldn't return to Joshimath. Since very strong winds were blowing, the chopper was chained to the ground. The last anyone saw of it was on Sunday night as the river changed course and swept the chopper away," said sources.
There have been reports that its wreckage was spotted several kilometres downstream in Joshimath but the company could not confirm the same. The ferocity of the flooding can be gauged from the fact that the Gagariya helipad was built in 2001 and did not ever get even flooded. "Now it just seems to be the river everywhere," said a company official.
18/06/13 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
