Jaana tha Nagpur, landed in Kanpur

Jaana tha Nagpur, landed in Kanpur

Helicopter pilots want netas who hire them during the upcoming Assembly elections to provide accurate coordinates of destinations to avoid emergency landings

With the Assembly elections round the corner, helicopter pilots are gearing up to deal with highflying politicians, who hire their services for campaigning. They are especially concerned because politicians often supply them incorrect location coordinates of spots they have to land on. Often the helipads are constructed on weak land, or in the vicinity of electric poles and wires, which makes landings extremely risky.

The pilots feed these coordinates into the copter's global positioning system, which helps them land accurately at the spot where the helipads are located.

Often the coordinates are incorrect and consequences are disastrous. Captain Umesh Bhatekar, who flew BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu to the Gaya District of Bihar during the January 2005 elections, was not given accurate coordinates of the helipad, where he was to refuel.

"As the coordinates were not accurate, I could not locate the helipad. Besides, I ran out of fuel and had to make a precautionary landing in a field in a Naxalite area. Naidu hitchhiked to the place of the meeting by road.

A few moments later the Naxalites arrived and blew up the AS355F Ecureuil helicopter," said Bhatekar, who was lucky the Naxalites did not kill him.

Colonel (Retd) RS Dev, a private chopper pilot, said, "Back in 1999, I was ferrying some political leaders during the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The coordinates of the helipad was incorrect by one degree, which translates to 100 km approximately. Luckily, my refueling helipad was some distance away. Had this not been the case, I would have run out of fuel while flying over the Naxalite infested jungles
in Bhandara."

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari agreed that the matter deserved serious note. "All political leaders should be careful as it's a matter of life and death. The job of passing on coordinates and stops at helipads should be entrusted to specialists instead of ground workers," Bhandari said.

While Congress party spokesperson Manish Tewari said, "The pilots are raising a valid point. Parties should plan in advance to provide proper coordinates and good helipads. This is a serious issue, which needs to be resolved."