From the front page of tonight's (29/01/03) Peterborough Evening Telegraph;
The two-man crew of the Cambridgeshire police helicopter were forced to make an emergency landing when it's engine blew up.
They were forced to take actions just seconds after taking off from an RAF base.
Experts today said the pair had a lucky escape.
Two police officers had a narrow escape when the engine of the Cambridgeshire force helicopter blew up on take-off.
The pair were only a few feet off the ground, after taking off from RAF Wyton, near Huntingdon, when they reported a problem with the engine
They were forced to make an emergency landing.
Chief Constable Tom Lloyd revealed the incident had taken place during a speech to members of the NFU.
Today, police spokeswoman Nina White refused to reveal exactly how much it would cost to repair the helicopter, or what caused the engine to blow up.
But Nick Bloom, of Pilot Magazine, said the landing could have been "very nasty" if the helicopter had turned over on its side.
If the rotors had snapped on landing and splintered into the cockpit, either man could have been killed or seriously injured.
Mr Bloom said: "The rotors are obviously moving quite quickly and if they hit the ground first it could be very nasty.
He added it would cost "tens of thousands of pounds" just to strip the engine to find out what the fault was.
The accident took place three weeks ago, although details have only just emerged. It is now back in service, but while it was out of action Cambridgeshire police was sharing helicopters belonging to the Essex and Suffolk forces.
Not too bad for the journos, but I'm not sure about the engine "blowing up."
I thought it was normally a three crew operation, a civvy pilot and two police observers, or is the pilot not important enough to warrant a mention?