Indian President in helicopter incident
Close Call for Indian President in Flight
2009-12-10 11:2414
Indian President Pratibha Patil and her family members had a narrow escape in a helicopter crash. The rotor blades of her chopper hit an abandoned store room at the airport in India's eastern Bhubaneshwar on Wednesday.
The accident happened around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. The Indian Air Force helicopter's blade ricocheted (ricoshayed) from the wall of an abandoned store room as it was taxiing to the parking bay after landing.
Patil, her husband and seven other people on board were unharmed. The crash damaged three blades of the chopper.
[Sanjay Jain, Bhubaneshwar Airport]:
"Visibility was perfectly all right. (Q. How it happened?) That's a matter of investigation (Who was at fault?) I can't say, I am telling you this is a matter of investigation."
Patil was arriving from the city of Puri when the crash occurred. She's scheduled to return to New Delhi on Thursday.
In February another incident occurred when one of the three Army helicopters in the President's fleet accidentally landed on a runway in Mumbai, forcing an airplane to abort take off.