The town of Wani in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district woke up to heartbreaking news on Sunday morning, as three members of a local family died in a helicopter crash en route to Kedarnath.

The deceased — Rajkumar Suresh Jaiswal, 41, his wife Shradha Rajkumar Jaiswal, 34, and their two-year-old daughter Kashi Rajkumar Jaiswal — were residents of Wani. The couple’s two sons, aged six and ten, survived as they had stayed back with relatives.

The Jaiswal family had originally planned their pilgrimage to Kedarnath earlier but postponed it due to safety concerns following the recent India-Pakistan standoff in the Pahalgam region. They rescheduled the trip for this week through a travel company, said family friend Niket Gupta.