Villagers from surrounding areas crowd around the gunship after it made a precautionary landing

An Apache helicopter of the Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday made a precautionary landing in a field in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district. Reports it made the precautionary landing after a warning alert in its control panels.

According to IAF sources, the chopper had taken off from Pathankot airbase but landed in the Budhwar village fields due to the technical glitch.

The pilots -- Flight Lieutenant Anoop and Flight Lieutenant Rajat -- are reported to be safe and the chopper was expected to be taken back to the airbase for technical check-up.

Snag Fixed

It was reported in the visual media that another transport helicopter brought IAF technicians to the site and within 25 minutes the snag was fixed and the affected helicopter was flown back to base. The exact nature of the problem was not disclosed by IAF, however, it is inferred that the gunship may have developed minor glitches due to engine overheating issues. It must be remembered that these machines are developed to operate in temperate climatic conditions. IAF may communicate what actually went wrong with the gunship on a later date.

Our Bureau