'Take Care Of Our Daughter': Pilot, Who Was New To Hill Flying, Told Wife Before Uttarakhand Crash

The chopper was ferrying pilgrims from Kedarnath temple to Guptkashi when it crashed into a hill due to poor visibility.

The ill-fated six-seater chopper -- Bell 407 (VT-RPN) -- operated by the city-based Aryan Aviation -- was ferrying pilgrims from Kedarnath temple to Guptkashi when it crashed into a hill due to poor visibility, bursting into flames at around 11.45 am at Dev Darshini in Garud Chatti ( Image Source :PTI )

New Delhi: Anil Singh, the pilot who was killed when his chopper crashed into a hill in Uttarakhand on Tuesday because of poor visibility, spoke to his wife over a phone call a day before he breathed his last. The chopper was ferrying pilgrims from Kedarnath temple to Guptkashi when it crashed into a hill due to poor visibility.

The pilot asked his wife to take care of their daughter who is not keeping well. "Take care of my daughter. She is unwell," were the last words of Anil Singh when he spoke to his wife, as reported by the news agency PTI. The chopper was carrying six pilgrims.

An Industry expert told the Times of India that Captain Anil Singh was an offshore pilot who flew the multi-engine Dauphin N-3 aircraft for Bombay High. He had joined Aryan Aviation just a month ago i.e. in September. The expert further said that Anil was an army pilot and hence he would have flown in the hills earlier, but this was in the early stages of his career. Flying overseas in a multi-engine helicopter and flying over mountainous areas on a single-engine helicopter is quite different.

After joining Aryan Aviation he started flying the single-engine Bell407. After the accident, the question is raised that he was an offshore pilot and did not even have much time to fly over the mountains. “Flying over the sea and the mountains is very different” Anil Singh was living in a posh housing society in the Andheri Suburb of the metropolis. He is survived by his wife Shireen Anandita and daughter Firoza Singh. 

“The ill-fated six-seater chopper -- Bell 407 (VT-RPN) -- operated by the city-based Aryan Aviation -- was ferrying pilgrims from Kedarnath temple to Guptkashi when it crashed into a hill due to poor visibility, bursting into flames at around 11.45 am at Dev Darshini in Garud Chatti,” PTI reported Rudraprayag District Disaster Management Officer Nandan Singh as saying.

Anandita and her daughter will reach New Delhi to perform the last rites of her husband. "His last call to us was yesterday (Monday). My daughter is not keeping well. He told me to take care of her," Anandita, who is a film writer, told PTI over the phone.

Originally a resident of East Delhi's Shahadra locality, Singh was living in Mumbai for the last 15 years. Anandita, however, said she had no "complaint against anyone as an accident is an accident". Moreover, the hill state always experiences inclement weather, she said. Teams of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and aviation regulator DGCA will be probing the helicopter crash, PTI reported citing a senior official.

Aryan Aviation had come under the regulatory scanner and was fined ₹ 5 lakh recently by the directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for certain violations.