Bhubaneswar airport incident second in year involving Patil helicopter.
President Pratibha Patil averted disaster after the rotor blades of her helicopter hit a building at the Bhuba-neswar airport on Wednesday. This is the second incident this year when the president’s safety was compromised.
Patil was with her husband Devisingh Shekhawat and Orissa governor MC Bhandari, on her way back from the Jagannath Temple in Puri. The 16-seater Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopter, carrying six more people, including Patil’s security officers, had a smooth landing at 4.33pm, but on its way from the helipad to the parking place, its rotor blades hit an abandoned asbestos shed. The blades were damaged, destabilising the helicopter, but the chopper landed safely. Patil escaped unhurt and was whisked away to her waiting convoy. Three helicopters were parked nearby and there was a chance that Patil’s chopper could have hit those.
“The president is fine, nothing happened to her,” Patil’s press secretary Archana Dutta said.
A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson described the incident as “minor”, but aviation expert Air Marshal (retd) Denzil Keelor said it was “serious”. An airport official said the helicopter could have caught fire after crash-landing.
Patil was disturbed after the accident; she went to the pilot herself inquiring about it.
Airport director Sanjay Jain ruled out “poor visibility” as the cause of the accident. “At 4.33pm, there was no poor visibility. We had given clearance for the landing. The pilot should be blamed for the accident.”
Jain said an inquiry has been initiated by the air force and the airport authority, but did not give details.
On February 9, a major disaster was averted after an air force helicopter, part of Patil’s convoy, was given clearance for landing on a Mumbai airport runway on which an Air India flight with 170 passengers had been cleared for take-off. The Air India pilot saw the error in time, stalling the aircraft.
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