An Army chopper, ALH ‘Rudra’ MK IV, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), reportedly made an emergency landing at a field in Kanakapura taluk near Bengaluru, initial reports said.
Army’s HAL-built ALH Rudra Mk IV chopper makes emegency landing outside Bengaluru due to possible hydraulic failure. Hearing it was on an acceptance sortie like the Mirage 2000 that crashed on Feb 1. pic.twitter.com/LesV8iDSZM
— Rahul Singh (@rahulsinghx) February 5, 2019
This is the second incident in the last one week. Earlier, in yet another tragic incident, HAL upgraded Mirage 2000 aircraft, which was on an acceptance trial, had crashed at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport at Bengaluru, leaving the two pilots dead.
However, as per reports the helicopter, ALH ‘Rudra’ MK IV, had to make the emergency landing due to a possible hydraulic failure. Both pilots onboard are reported to be safe.
Sources said that the army version of capabilities, developed and manufactured by HAL had taken off from the HAL airport in the city and made an emergency landing due to a technical snag.
‘Rudra’ is the army variant of ALH developed by HAL and had taken off on a routine air sortie from the HAL airport. Army, police and technical support teams reached the spot immediately.
The spokesman for Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, which developed the Rudra and is building some more copters for the Army and the Air Force, said that HAL had flown a technical team to the site to give support. “According to our information it was a precautionary landing,” he said.
HAL was contracted to deliver about 76 Rudra ALH MK IV helicopters for the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force. The Indian Army plans to equip its Army Aviation Corps with 60 helicopters, forming six squadrons. HAL handed over the first Rudra helicopter to the Indian Army in February 2013.
Earlier, in May last year, the Rudra chopper was involved in a mishap during night flying in Jodhpur. However, then it was involved in a hard landing incident due to a brown-out.
Army’s Rudra attack chopper involved in a mishap during night flying at Nagtalao, Jodhpur. pic.twitter.com/o85kbNtSJI
— Rahul Singh (@rahulsinghx) May 6, 2018
The state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) makes and upgrades aircraft for training and combat operations of the IAF as the country’s sole defence giant. It also maintains and operates the military airport in Bengaluru.
Recently there have been various issues revolving around the efficiency and sincerity of HAL relating to the production and delaying in its delivery schedules.
