By IANS,
Ferozepur (Punjab) : A helicopter carrying Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had to make an emergency landing in an open field in this Punjab district Sunday following a technical snag, officials said.
Badal was on his way to Jalalabad in the district, some 280 km from Chandigarh, when the two pilots of the Bell 230 helicopter, hired by the Punjab government from Prem Air, experienced some difficulty barely minutes before the landing at the scheduled place and had to bring it to ground immediately.
“The chopper had to make an emergency landing in the open fields of Gobind Nagar, around 700 meters before the BSF (Border Security Force) helipad, where it was actually supposed to land,” Harcharan Bains, media advisor of Punjab chief minister, told reporters in Chandigarh.
He said though preliminary investigation has not revealed anything suspicious, the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) has been asked to conduct an independent inquiry into the incident.
Bains said that nobody was hurt during the emergency landing.
Badal was going to Jalalabad to thank the voters of the constituency from where he was elected to the state assembly by a whopping margin of over 80,000 votes earlier this month.
Despite the emergency landing, Badal continued his journey and carried on with his programme.