7 People Killed in Helicopter Crash in India, Just Days After Air India Tragedy

Seven people have died in a helicopter crash in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

According to the BBC, a helicopter carrying visitors to a number of Hindu religious pilgrimage sites in the Himalayan mountains crashed on Sunday, June 15, during what would have been a 10-minute flight.

Per the Associated Press, the helicopter, which was being operated by private helicopter service company Aryan Aviation, took off at 5:19 a.m. local time and went down in a forested area at around 5:30 a.m. Officials told the outlets that investigators currently believe the crash was caused by poor weather conditions.

The helicopter was a Bell 407, a four-blade, single-engine vessel made for civilian use, according to reports.

The BBC reported that the helicopter’s pilot and a 2-year-old child were among those killed, per the directorate general of civil aviation. The vessel’s passengers included residents from the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, as well as the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat, per the AP.

All of the bodies were badly burned in a fire following the crash. Officials said that India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) will investigate the incident.

Local official Nandan Singh Rajwar told the AP that authorities have also launched a rescue and search operation.

“The helicopter accident in Rudraprayag is extremely unfortunate,” Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief minister of Uttarakhand, wrote in Hindi in a statement on X. “I express my deepest condolences to the deceased in this painful accident.”

“… A high level meeting was held with all the concerned departments at the Government House to thoroughly review this accident,” the minister added. “The safety procedures of helicopter operations are being closely examined.”

The BBC reported that the country’s Civil Aviation Ministry suspended the operations of Aryan Aviation, per the Press Trust of India. The company did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The region is home to one of the four most sacred Hindu holy sites, and tens of thousands of visitors make a pilgrimage — called the Char Dham Yatra — to the temples each summer, according to the AP. The mountainous terrain is also known for being extremely difficult to navigate due to its sudden weather changes and high altitude. The outlet reported that Sunday’s crash was the fifth in the area since April 30.

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation has been asked to oversee all helicopter activity in the region following Sunday’s crash, per the AP.

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Sunday’s crash also comes just days after a London-bound Air India crashed shortly after takeoff, killing nearly all of its passengers.

The plane, which was flying from Ahmedabad in western India and was bound for London’s Gatwick Airport, crashed into a residential area five minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. local time on Thursday, Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the directorate of civil aviation, told the AP.

The passengers included Indian, British and Portuguese nationals, as well as one person from Canada. Air India has not released an official number of people who have died from the crash, but CNN estimated that the death toll has risen to more than 290 people.

The BBC reported that officials say there was at least one confirmed survivor of the crash, who was traveling in seat 11A on the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flight.