Low-flying chopper causes flutter in Wanowrie

Several residents of Wanowrie reported seeing an Indian Air Force helicopter flying over residential buildings around 11 am on Friday. They said the chopper was flying dangerously low,almost at the same height as the buildings.

“We were surprised that the IAF apparently authorised such an exercise in an area like ours. The chopper flew over NIBM and Salunkhe Vihar areas several times,” said Srinivas Nyayapathy,a resident who is also a trained pilot. “Normally,the minimum height for flying is 500 feet,but the chopper was flying at below 200 feet. It was close enough for us to see its registration number. A little lower and it might have snapped some cables,” he said. “We came running out when we saw the military chopper… we had never seen such an exercise before and were wondering what happened,” said Oomani Velayudhani,a resident. Another resident said they were able to see the chopper at close quarters from their terrace.

“It was a routine flight plan. Nothing untoward happened and the IAF received no complaints from the public,” said an IAF officer.