Raigad (Maharashtra): A private helicopter which was bound to pick up Shiv Sena deputy leader Sushma Andhare from a temporary landing spot at Mahad, suddenly crashed while landing, officials said here on Friday.
As per a live video recording shared by a user on “X” (formerly Twitter), the chopper was making a landing attempt at an unidentified location and suddenly it seemed to swerve, wobble, lose balance and then crash with a loud sound in a cloud of dust on an open ground.
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The pilot of the chopper managed to jump off the ill-fated chopper and survived, but the white-and-blue hired rotary-winger was badly damaged in the crash that occurred at Mahad town in Raigad.
Police and rescue teams rushed to the spot to probe the incident while the shaken Andhare—who was scheduled to fly by the same chopper—proceeded in a car for her scheduled election meetings in different parts of the district.
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The chopper suffered a malfunction and veered out of control during its landing in Mahad area at around 9:30 am, the police official added.
A video of the incident shows the private helicopter hovering over the area and suddenly losing control. It is seen tilting and crashing on the ground while plumes of sand and dust rise. It was a 2002 BELL 407 helicopter (VT-MPU) that crash-landed in Mahad.
Amit Shah’s chopper lost control
Union home minister Amit Shah’s helicopter was seen to ‘lose control’ while taking off from Bihar’s Begusarai. Shah had gone Begusarai to address an election meeting. However, the government has clarified that “there were no such issues”.
