Take care of my daughter: Kedarnath chopper pilot’s last words

The pilot of the ill-fated helicopter which crashed in Kedarnath on Tuesday spoke to his wife a day ahead of the crash and urged her to look after his daughter.

“Take care of my daughter. She is unwell,” were Anil Singh’s last words when he spoke to his wife on Monday.

This was revealed by the pilot’s wife. She also said that she and her daughter will be leaving for New Delhi to perform the last rites.

Singh was killed along with six pilgrims when his chopper crashed into a hill in Uttarakhand on Tuesday due to poor visibility.

The six-seater chopper was ferrying pilgrims from Kedarnath temple to Guptkashi when it crashed and burst into flames at around 11:45 am at Dev Darshini in Garud Chatti.

Meanwhile, the 57-year-old pilot, Singh, was living in a posh housing society in the Andheri suburb of the metropolis and is survived by his wife Shireen Anandita, and daughter Firoza Singh.

Following the incident, teams of Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and aviation regulator DCGA will be probing the helicopter crash. However, Anandita said that she had no “complaints against anyone as an accident is an accident”. Moreover, the hill state always experiences inclement weather, the wife was reported saying.

It is also to be mentioned here that Aryan Aviation had come under the regulatory scanner and was fine Rs 5 lakh recently by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for certain ciolations. This was the only 6-seater helicopter in the company’s fleet of five choppers, according to DGCA website.