Indian Army helicopter makes emergency landing in potato field near Bengaluru

An Indian Army helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing in a potato field near Karnataka capital Bengaluru on Tuesday. News Nation has the exclusive footage of the incident. The chopper made the emergency landing in a field at Talghatpora Police Station Limit in Kanakpora Taluk at around 1:15pm. The initial reports say that the pilot is safe. No damage was reported to the chopper also.

 

FIRST ON NEWS NATION: Indian Army chopper makes an emergency landing in a potato field in Kanakpura near Bengaluru. Watch #Exclusive video pic.twitter.com/o2QDlyhYT5

— News Nation (@NewsNationTV) February 5, 2019

The incident comes a day after Army chief General Bipin Rawat visited Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland to review the military preparedness. Arunachal Pradesh shares a 1,080 km border with China, 520 km border with Myanmar and 217-km border with Bhutan. The Army chief started his North East tour with a visit to the Spear Corps headquarters, Rangapahar Military Station, Dimapur in Nagaland on Sunday, they said. Gen Rawat reviewed the operational preparedness of Spear Corps and expressed satisfaction with the preparedness along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and lauded its people friendly counter-insurgency operations, officials said.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force are embroiled in a tussle over who will control the attack choppers. The issue includes the role of the Apache choppers. General Rawat has been quoted as saying that Apaches need to be grouped with the army’s strike formation. According to an Economic Times report, India has spent close to $3 billion for 15 Chinook and 22 Apache helicopters for the Indian Air Force. The army will separately get six Apaches, through an “option clause” of the earlier deal. 

The report also quoted General Rawat as saying that there will be ‘anti-helicopters’ for the Indian Army. The Advanced Light Helicopter-Weapon system integrated will have missiles especially meant for anti-helicopter operations.

On Tuesday, another incident involving a private aircraft was reported from Pune. The pilot was injured after the aircraft of a private tarining institute crashed near Pune today. Earlier on February 1, two Indian Air Force pilots had lost their lives during Mirage 2000 sortie after it was upgraded by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.