Young couple’s fatal chopper ride
They were dating each other for three years, and tied the knot only a month ago. Out on their honeymoon, little did 28-year-old Lovish Bhanot and Anupama Bhola know that it was a short-lived togetherness. The couple were among the five people killed in the crash during a Sundance Helicopters twilight tour near Lake Mead, near Los Angeles last Wednesday.
The couple had planned to be back in India on December 15, after a three-week honeymoon in the US that included a visit to Los Angeles before arriving in Las Vegas about a week before the crash.
Lovish’s close friend Sanjeev Kapoor says he can’t believe the couple is no more. “They got married on November 6, an arranged match though they knew each other before. I was in touch with Lovish constantly throughout his honeymoon and I can’t believe I won’t hear his voice again. The family is devastated, it’s not easy to accept untimely death. Till the time this news was confirmed, we were hoping it’s not them. They were such a beautiful couple.”
Sanjeev adds that the company Sundance Helicopters of Las Vegas is to be blamed for the incident. “It’s their negligence, their fault. They’ve previously had accidents in 2009 and 2003. It’s because of them we’ve lost many lives. We will explore the legal options, they should be punished.”
Reports suggest that the helicopter was over the Las Vegas Strip and Hoover Dam at sunset when it crashed near the bottom of a canyon, 150 feet deep in the River Mountains bordering Lake Mead. The cause of the crash is still under investigation.
Lovish was the managing director of a property brokerage firm — Lyca Investment Ltd — he lost his father three years ago and is survived by his mother and two sisters in Gurgaon. Anupama worked as a flight attendant.
Sanjeev adds, “The remains have been found but they are charred, last rites will be performed there itself. Two of Lovish’s cousins have flown down to the US.”
Ruchi Chaudhary, operations, Lyca, was in tears when asked about her boss Lovish. She said, “Even though I’ve been with the company for only a year, Lovish sir was a genuine person. He taught me a lot in this organisation. He was a hands-on person when it was anything to do with work. I had got to know about the incident some days ago and when I looked it up on the Internet, it said the couple was in the ICU. Only yesterday, I read that we’ve lost them both. Anupama ma’am often used to come to the office, she was working as an air hostess with Air India. Some of our seniors from the organisation went to Lovish sir’s home to pay their respects and express their condelence, since I am relatively new I stayed back and said my prayers from here.”
Sundance CEO Larry Pietropaolo has been quoted saying that there was no distress call before the chopper’s GPS signal stopped during the flight — which typically would be a 40-minute twilight journey over Hoover Dam and the Lake Mead reservoir on the Colorado River, the western rim of the Grand Canyon and the neon-lit Las Vegas Strip.
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