‘Cannot see anything, turning … ‘: Report reveals pilot’s last words during Kedar chopper crash | Dehradun News

DEHRADUN: “Cannot see anything, turning…”—these were the final radio-transmitted words of the Aryan Aviation pilot moments before his helicopter crashed near Gaurikund en route to Kedarnath on June 15 this year, killing all seven people on board. The line, quoted in the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s (AAIB) interim report, captures the split-second loss of visibility that led the Bell 407 to hit a hillside during an early-morning shuttle sortie.The helicopter, registered as VT-BKA, was the first to operate that morning under Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA’s) slot system that permits flights from sunrise. The pilot—Captain Rajveer Singh Chauhan, a retired Army aviator from Jaipur—arrived at Guptkashi around 4:30am, underwent a breathalyser test, checked CCTV feeds of the valley weather, and completed pre-flight inspections. The chopper took off at 5:10am and reached Kedarnath in about ten minutes.After offloading passengers, the aircraft departed Kedarnath with six passengers on the return leg. As per protocol, helicopters exiting the valley must maintain 9,000 ft in the area, which is notorious for fast-moving, unpredictable cloud banks.Two helicopters—VT-TBF and VT-TBC—were behind VT-BKA in the departure sequence. As the Aryan Aviation chopper neared the valley exit, the pilot radioed that clouds had blocked the route. Seconds later came his last transmission: “Cannot see anything, turning…” No distress call followed.The aircraft never reached Guptkashi.The pilot of VT-TBC later told investigators he heard the transmission and avoided the same cloud mass by descending to a lower altitude. CCTV footage from three valley cameras confirmed that the exit point was engulfed by drifting cloud cover at the time. The two helicopters following VT-BKA managed to exit safely using the lower path.Local authorities soon alerted the operator that the helicopter had crashed into a hillside near Gaurikund and burst into flames on impact, killing all passengers and the pilot.Those who died included pilot 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 wife Shraddha, 35, and their two-year-old daughter Kashi. Captain Chauhan’s wife is a serving Lt Colonel in the Indian Army.The AAIB report highlighted significant shortcomings in weather monitoring. “Kedarnath helipad has an automated weather instrument, but it does not record data and provides no cloud information. No weather updates were shared on the operators’ WhatsApp group that morning, leaving pilots dependent largely on visibility checks through CCTV cameras,” the report said.“There is no dedicated Met facility in the Kedarnath valley,” the report further noted. The automated instrument streams real-time information on wind, visibility, temperature, pressure, humidity and dew point, but not cloud conditions—crucial in a valley where sudden clouding is common.A UCADA security staffer periodically circulates screenshots of the live feed to operators, but investigators said this system was insufficient for safe operations.Following the accident, DGCA revised its 2023 circular on Kedarnath shuttle operations. The updated rules mandate a dedicated control centre staffed with an in-charge, ATC officer and IMD meteorological support, along with minimum prescribed flight times for each shuttle sector.The AAIB’s final report is awaited.