Pawan Hans chopper makes emergency landing

AMI 172 Pawan Hans chopper with 24 passengers, including crew members, onboard which was on its way from harlagun to Guwahati, made an emergency landing in a village link road at Tetunbari in Sonitpur district of Assam.

The chopper took off from harlagun helipad at 8.40 AM for Guwahati after ascertaining technical fitness and the weather clearance from the ATC Tezpur, Jorhat and Guwahati, an official communiqué informed.

Among the passengers were singer Polash Sen. It is reported that after flying for about 30 minutes, the aircraft encountered very bad weather conditions in the route and the pilots, instead of taking any risk, made a precautiory landing on a well carpeted village link road.

The aircraft halted there for 1 hour 45 minutes and returned to harlagun as the weather conditions en route Guwahati were not improving.

"Thank you god. Landed safe and sound in the middle of a road. The pilot showed great character. Saved us, gave me a second chance!" singer Sen wrote on his Facebook page.

Aruchal Pradesh civil aviation secretary has ordered the Director of Civil Aviation to carry out an inquiry into the matter immediately for ascertaining the cause of the incident and fixing accountability if any discrepancy was found, the communiqué added.