Fadnavis unhurt in helicopter incident

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (pictured) on Friday escaped unhurt in a freak incident that saw his helicopter allegedly start taking off and tilting over him as he waited near its door.

Seeing the chopper tilt over the chief minister, his security personnel rushed and pulled him away to safety, said an official. The chief minister's office, however, denied occurrence of any such incident, saying there was no accident at all.

But the official insisted, “When Fadnavis was near the helicopter door, it began taking off and tilted sideways.” The alert security personnel rushed to put the CM out of harm's way, he added.

Fadnavis had gone to Raigad on Friday to attend the birthday celebrations of Peasants and Workers Party of India leader Jayant Patil and to inaugurate an auditorium.

The chief minister's office issued a statement to refute the occurrence incident.

"Rumours are being spread that the CM's helicopter was involved in an accident. There was no such accident. People should not believe rumours," it said. In case it occurred, it was the second chopper incident involving Fadnavis in just over a month.

On May 25, Fadnavis had a narrow escape when his chopper got entangled in overhead wires and crash-landed in Latur district of Maharashtra after the pilot tried to descend due to bad weather soon after the take-off.

Friday's alleged incident came after an initial probe conducted by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) last month into the crash-landing of Fadnavis’ chopper in Latur district found prima-facie lapses on the part of the pilot.

"The pilot failed to assess the load on the helicopter on a day of high temperature. Since heat makes it harder for a chopper/aircraft to get off the ground, he should not have taken off with almost full load," an AAIB official had said.