NRI Industrialist’s Aircraft Makes Emergency Landing On Highway In India

BHOPAL – A private Cessna aircraft ofan NRI industrialist made an emergencylanding on National Highway 69 nearBetul in Madhya Pradesh around 9.35amon Tuesday after strong winds foiled thepilot’s bid to land at an airstrip.Industrialist Sam Varma was not in his 4-seater aircraft, which had taken off fromthe airstrip on his company — MichiganRubber (India) Ltd — premises in Betul,about 175 km southeast of state capitalBhopal.“Pilot Jacob informed me about the difficultyin landing. There was a strongwind from the east side. The landing wasdone successfully with the support of the(Betul district) administration,” Varmatold mediapersons.“Fortunately, nobody was hurt in theprocess.”Varma said the aircraft could not landfrom the other end because the NationalHighways Authority of India had raised110-foot pillars at that side near theairstrip while building NH 69.The pilot made at least three attempts toland at the company airstrip, but had tomake the rounds in the air for almost anhour before the administration could lineup the emergency runway on the NH,with precautionary measures in place.The pilot’s initial suggestion to Varmawas to go for an emergency landing in anearby water reservoir, but Varma, anaviation expert himself, got in touch withthe district administration to chart thehighway landing.NH 69, which runs from Obaidullahganj(MP) to Nagpur (Maharashtra) is beingfour-laned. The administration chose astretch and stopped traffic to facilitatethe landing. Fire tenders and a policecontingent were also deployed.