Uttarakhand makes a co-pilot compulsory on Char Dham helicopter charters

31 October 2026

Every charter helicopter flying the Char Dham routes in Uttarakhand must now carry a co-pilot as well as the pilot. It was agreed on 31 October when officials of the DGCA met the Uttarakhand Civil Aviation Development Authority (UCADA) at a high-level meeting. It came a day after a private helicopter returning to Dehradun from the Badrinath shrine went down near Joshimath in Chamoli district, killing all six on board. UCADA CEO Prateek Jain said pilots must also file a report after every flight, recording the weather on the route and other useful details, so the next crew is better prepared. A format for this report is being prepared. Teams from the DGCA and the AAIB reached Joshimath to examine the cause of the crash. Operators later wrote to the regulators that the two-pilot rule would make the services costly to run.