An Indian Air Force (IAF) Cheetah helicopter made an emergency (precautionary) landing Thursday on the Eastern Peripheral Expressway in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. The chopper has now returned to the Hindon airbase from where it had taken off, according to the Indian Air Force.
The Cheetah Helicopter is a high-performance helicopter designed for operation over a very wide range of weight, centre of gravity and altitude conditions. Earlier in February, a Cheetah helicopter crashed in Reasi, Jammu. Both the pilots flying Cheetah helicopter had ejected safely. The chopper was flying from Udhampur on a training sortie. Prior to that, in October 2019, a helicopter of the Indian Army carrying then chief of the force’s Northern Command Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh and other officers made an emergency landing following a technical glitch in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch.
The Army’s Dhruv Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) with Lt Gen Ranbir Singh and six other officers on board was on a sortie from Udhampur to Poonch when it developed a technical snag.