Helicopter Havoc

         Helicopter! Incoming! Where? Where is it? I can’t see it! Oh yeah, there it is! Oh my god! This was a part of a short discussion which took place between my brother and I while going to a holy temple.

It was around 11 in the morning on 23 November 2014. My family and I set out for the Chatushrungi temple in Pune, in our car. I was riding shotgun, my father was driving, and my mother and brother were sitting behind us. It was a nice morning. The sun was shining lazily, the sky was utterly clear, and the cool breeze was blowing gently, or so it seemed, as in a car with closed windows, you can’t experience it. And most importantly, I was in a good mood, which wasn’t very often.

          While looking at the clear skies, I spotted a grey helicopter in the sky, not too far. Nothing too unusual. Still, I told my brother about it. Then the helicopter did start becoming unusual. It seemed that it was falling. I had to tape this! Unfortunately, because of my usual bad luck, it went behind the buildings. I gave this news of the helicopter crash to my family. My mother, being positive, said “I’m sure it didn’t crash. It must be landing on the helipad of a building. Perspective is the culprit.”

          I was pretty sure there wasn’t a single helipad in the area. I kept a lookout for any kind of fire or smoke, or the unfortunate copter. Within a few seconds, we came into an open area, free of buildings. The helicopter wasn’t visible at all. Even the fastest of helicopters couldn’t escape in such a short period of time. Where in the world did that copter go? I was going crazy. At least the copter would make some kind of sound while flying. I opened the window. I heard a really loud whop-whop-whop-whop-whop-whop-whop. The typical sound of a severely unbalanced washing machine. Yeah, what else but the identified-flying-helicopter.

I stuck my head out of the window. The copter was insanely close, just about ten metres above us. What was the pilot thinking, landing on us, or on the road? I blurted out a funny “Aaah!” You had to see the expression on my brother’s face. It was then that I said “Helicopter! Incoming!” The copter took a sharp turn to the left and became visible to all. And then my brother said “Where? Where is it? I can’t see it! Oh yeah, there it is! Oh my god!”

Immediately, everyone on the road stopped their cars to catch this sight. This thing isn’t seen every day. The copter was flying at a moderate speed along with our car. The thing was losing altitude quickly, and before it landed, or crashed, our car stopped due to the traffic jam.

People stepped down of their cars to see it. They literally parked their cars on the left lane of the road. I remember seeing two children sitting on the roof of their car, with their parents beside them, eating chips, as if they knew the event was going to happen. I’m not kidding, the place became a picnic spot.

The copter probably didn’t crash, as it didn’t make a crashing sound. It flew into an area fenced with brick walls and barbed wires, covered with trees. It was a military base. We made our way through the jam, and finally saw the helicopter resting on the ground. People were standing on their toes, and some were even sitting on the fence of the base, avoiding the barbed wires.

Actually, there were two of them. One of them absolutely motionless, and the other with rotating blades, perhaps the one which landed just then. We further proceeded down the road, until the helicopters were out of sight. There were almost no vehicles in the road. All were busy watching the copter behind.

Some distance ahead, I noticed a third copter in the sky. It too flew in the direction of the base. “Turn back! I want to see it!” my brother ordered, of which notice wasn’t taken. It was not flying as close as the first one, and was just as grey as it. I felt that something was on. Some great personality had just landed in the city. Then even I felt that we should have turned back. I would have got a glimpse of the Indian Prime Minister, or Lionel Messi, the great football player, or Baba Ramdev, the popular yoga teacher, who knows?

After a few days, I did learn who had come to town. There was a joint military exercise of India and China in the military station. The helicopters were a part of a joint tactical exercise which included insertion of troops from helicopters to destroy a dummy terrorist hideout.

Right. So it wasn’t a celebrity. Just some Chinese soldiers coming across the border for joint training with the Indians. Nothing much to see, and certainly not a great incident for people to create a traffic jam. Oh well, I learnt one thing from this incident: Helicopters create havoc.

       

 

-  Manas Trivedi

 

A newspaper clip, showing the army helicopter