NEW DELHI: A chopper flying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi back to Delhi from Haryana campaign on Friday evening had to make an unscheduled safe landing at Rewari due to bad weather in the capital. The Agusta-109 chopper (VT-HGX) was returning from Mahendragarh to Delhi with Gandhi along with two other leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kumari Selja, PA of Congress ex-president and a SPG personnel.

The chopper belongs to Heritage Aviation, which last Friday started flights on its 9-seater King Air 350 between Hindon and Pithoragarh. “On Friday the Heritage Augusta Helicopter made an unscheduled landing at Rewari due to bad weather. This chopper on Friday afternoon flown from Delhi to Mahendragarh, a 45-minute flight. It took off from Mahendergarh at 4.50 pm for Delhi but encountered bad weather enroute and landed safely at Rewari,” said sources.

The chopper’s highly experienced pilots — Captain G K Singh and Captain Akshay Jaiswal — ensured that the chopper landed safely and all the five passengers on board were safe.

The Special Protection Group and other security agencies have a list of highly experienced pilots who can be allowed to fly VVIPs and its protectees in different types of aircraft and helicopters.

Weather in Delhi suddenly changed on Friday evening due to which even relatively big fix-wing aircraft like Airbus A320s and Boeing 737s headed to the capital’s IGI Airport had to be diverted. “Due to bad weather in Delhi, eight (incoming) flights got diverted to Lucknow and Jaipur,” said a Delhi Airport official.

In such sudden change of weather, experienced chopper pilots always choose to safely land somewhere. This is what the two Heritage chopper’s experienced pilots did too on Friday evening.

