Helicopter makes emergency landing at Palghar school ground after technical snag; no injuries

Mumbai: A chopper used for training made an emergency landing on a school ground in Maharashtra's Palghar district after developing a technical problem, officials said on Wednesday. Nobody was injured in the incident that occurred on Tuesday afternoon, they said. The helicopter belonging to a private company was flying from Juhu in Mumbai to Surat in Gujarat, carrying four crew members, including the main pilot, a trainee pilot and a technical engineer, an official said. “When the helicopter was flying between Safale and Kelva Road stations, the pilot noticed a ‘red alert’ warning on the chopper and decided to make an emergency landing in an open space,” assistant police inspector Datta Shelke of Safale police station told PTI.

The helicopter landed at Vidya Vaibhav High School ground in the area around 12.30 pm, he said. “The on-board engineer identified and rectified the technical fault. After remaining at the site for about 40 minutes, the helicopter took off from the school ground around 1.10 pm and returned to Juhu,” he said. A police team remained at the site throughout the duration as a precautionary measure, he added.