JOIN USA two-seater microlight aircraft of the National Cadet Corps wing of the Indian Air Force made an emergency landing in a park in east Delhi’s Shastri Park area on Sunday morning after the pilots found technical glitches in it. No casualty was reported, said the police.
The aircraft, numbered CH 701, landed at around 10:30 am in a Delhi Development Authority park near Jag Pravesh Chandra Hospital, where around 60 children were playing.
The aircraft had taken off from the Hindon air base in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad at around 8:40 am for checking bird activity around the base, where the Air Force was carrying out the full dress rehearsal of its 81st Indian Air Force Day parade.
“It was supposed to return to the base after completing its flight. However, it developed a minor technical fault and had to make an emergency landing,” said a senior police officer.
Seeing the aircraft land all of a sudden, the children playing in the park were frightened and ran off to nearby areas. Bystanders then gathered near the aircraft and saw two pilots sitting in the cockpit.
Wing Commander Bidyut Ghose and co-pilot Sumit safely came out. Ghose informed the base camp at Hindon and then local police officials about the incident.
Ghose said, “Around 10:25 am, I detected some technical fault in the engine of the aircraft. At that time we were hovering above the park and saw children playing all over, but I spotted a space in a corner of the field and managed to safely land the aircraft at around 10:28 am.”
Faisal Manan, who lives nearby, said, “While playing cricket, we heard a loud noise and saw a plane in the sky coming towards us. When I saw the aircraft, I fled. We returned after we saw two people coming out of the aircraft.”
Police reached the spot but had a tough time managing the crowd. They cordoned off the area, and with the help of ropes and a mini truck pulled the aircraft away from the ground after NCC cadets reached the spot.
A few Air Force officials also arrived there at around 1:30 pm, and the aircraft was loaded onto a truck to be taken back to the Hindon base.
The Air Force officials said, “The pilot suspected something was not right with the aircraft, and as a precautionary measure he landed the aircraft after finding an empty spot on the ground. The aircraft has been taken back to the Hindon air base after a thorough check.”