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Chopper carrying Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis crash lands after touching high-tension cable, all on board safe | Video

The pilot said the helicopter started coming down soon after taking off from the helipad and touched high tension cable even as he tried to avoid it. Took off from helipad at 12, wind speed then was high. Later when we initiated, wind speed reduced. Helicopter then started coming down, there was a high tension cable there, we tried avoiding it but by then helicopter had touched it, he said.

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Bindiya Bhatt
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Chopper carrying Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis crash lands after touching high-tension cable, all on board safe | Video

Chopper with Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis onboard crash-lands in Latur (Photo: ANI)

A helicopter carrying Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday crash-landed while landing at Nilanga in Latur. The chief minister and others on board have escaped unhurt. Fadnavis tweeted: "Our helicopter did meet with an accident in Latur but me and my team is absolutely safe and ok.Nothing to worry." (Sic)

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The Maharashtra Chief Minister also released a video message following the incident saying the chopper in which he was travelling in met with an accident and said that he was safe. "My chopper meet with an accident, with your blessings, I am safe," he said in a video released shortly after the crash.

The pilot said the helicopter started coming down soon after taking off from the helipad and touched high tension cable even as he tried to avoid it. "Took off from helipad at 12, wind speed then was high. Later when we initiated, wind speed reduced. Helicopter then started coming down, there was a high tension cable there, we tried avoiding it but by then helicopter had touched it," he said.

It was an accident and the chopper suffered substantial damage, a senior official of the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) said. Fadnavis had gone to Latur in Marathwada for the BJP’s ‘Shivar Samwad Sabha’, a statewide campaign to reach out to farmers.

The chopper developed a technical snag while taking off from the helipad at Nilanga where the chief minister had gone for an event.

“Nobody got hurt. My media advisor Ketan Pathak has suffered minor injuries. With the blessings of 11 crore people of Maharashtra, I am safe,” he told reporters at Nilanga.

He added that the pilot too had not been injured seriously.

“This is a new helicopter. We will seek information from police on this incident,” the chief minister said.

Recently, on a tour to Gadchiroli in Vidarbha region, his helicopter had suffered a technical snag, following which he had travel by road to Nagpur. 

(With inputs from agencies)

Devendra Fadnavis crash chopper