JOIN USThe rooftop of Maitri Apartments in GM Palya turned a tourist destination on Thursday evening with curious onlookers thronging the place to have a glimpse of the chopper, which made an emergency landing.
The inhabitants of the 35 houses of the apartment were taken aback when they heard an explosion-like sound. On reaching the terrace, they saw a military helicopter and two men in uniform sitting on the parapet wall.
They instructed them to stay away from the helicopter as there was a risk of an explosion. Terrified, the residents vacated the building in a matter of seconds.
Speaking to Deccan Herald, Annapoorna Saha, a resident of the fourth floor of the apartment said,
“While I was in the kitchen, I saw a white helicopter approaching close to my window. I was shocked and within seconds I heard a loud sound from my terrace. I immediately rushed there to find the chopper and the two pilots.”
Ratna Chakravarthy, another resident on the third floor, however, mistook the sound for a gas cylinder explosion and rushed out of the building.
Another inhabitant, Savitramma, said she heard a huge sound and by the time she came out of the house, many came rushing down from the neighbouring apartment and were amazed to see that a chopper had crashed on the terrace.
Gangadhar, working at a private firm, said that he took his children along to have a glimpse of the chopper but they had to return disappointed.
People had gathered on the rooftops of the neighbouring highrise apartments to watch the helicopter . Eventually, the curious crowd proved to be such a menace that a KSRP platoon was called to handle them. A zonal DCP, three ACPs and five inspectors were also deployed on the spot.
Previous incident
Incidentally, retired Air Commodore Roj Assey, 58, was part of a previous RWA copter crash in 2010 as well.
A Chetak helicopter had crashed moments after it took off from Rotary Wing Academy on August 27, 2010 injuring both Assey and Virender Singh, a trainee pilot from the Indian Army. The accident occurred due to a tail-rotor-control loss problem.