Kiren Rijiju's chopper makes emergency landing

A chopper carrying Union Home Minister Kiren Rijiju was on Tuesday forced to make an emergency landing near Itanagar on Tuesday. He was travelling from Guwahati to Ziro to attend the Dree Festival.

The Mi-17 helicopter, where Rijiju was travelling, had seven other passengers when it faced heavy rains and fog in the afternoon. It made an emergency landing when the weather turned bad.

Pilots of the Border Security Force, who were flying the chopper, had to hover around for more than 10 minutes before it landed at a small paddy field in Itanagar. Soon after the landing the Itanagar SP rushed to the spot and along with local people helped him and the other passengers reach a safe spot.

"I was lucky enough to be landed safely, thanks to the BSF pilots who are very experienced," he told reporters.

"It was preventive landing; because of weather conditions, the helicopter could not land at its destination. So, it landed at an alternate place," said a BSF spokesperson.