In the meantime, on the instructions of Shri N.N. Vohra, Chairman, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, the CEO, the shrine board also approached the DGCA to separately conducting detailed Safety Audit of the Heli operations between Katra-Sanji Chhat-Katra Sector.
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Seven people, including a woman pilot, were killed when a helicopter ferrying them back from the famous Vaishno Devi shrine crashed in Katra, 50 km from Jammu, on Monday. The pilgrims included a Jammu IAF officer and his wife who had tied the knot last Wednesday and a six-year-old girl from Delhi who was accompanying her father. Soon after take-off, the engine of the chopper caught fire, apparently due to the bird hit.
Former Air Force pilot Sumeeta Vijayan tried hard to land in an open space but failed, as the tail rotor of the helicopter got damaged and the aircraft got out of control. “Today morning the newlywed couple left to pay their obeisance at the holy cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi”, Preetam Singh Chib a close relative said.
Wanhchuk Shamshu, director of the Himalayan Heli service, ruled out bad weather being a cause for the accident. The sixth deceased was identified as Aryanjeet Singh, 52, of Trikuta Nagar, Jammu, and pilot Sunita Vijayn of Hyderabad. Along with another private operator Global Vectra, the two services carry out 100-odd sorties per day during this month of pilgrim traffic between Katra and Sanjhichatt near the cave shrine. “As the plane was descending, its rotors got enmeshed in electrical wires and it caught fire”, he said.
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Chief Pilot Sumita also deserved all the credit for preventing crash on the built up area. Harshvardhan said all those issues had been sorted out. “We will be inquiring further”, he said. In his condolence message, Shah has said Tourism Department stands with the bereaved tourist families in this hour of grief and extended his condolences to them.
