CHANDIGARH: A Jaguar pilot of the Indian Air Force pilot had a narrow escape on Thursday at Ambala airbase when a bird hit the aircraft. Though the bird hit caused one of the engines of the aircraft to fail, the pilot with his quick presence of mind dropped the external fuel tank and payload on the ground thus managing to land safely.
The incident took place when the fighter plane was on a routine training sortie. The bird reportedly got sucked into one of its engines the moment the aircraft took off. The pilot had to use the other engine to land the plane back to the base. This British era plane has two built-in engines for such emergencies.
The pilot had to also drop the extra payload (without explosives) before he could land it back to safety.
He dropped around ten kilograms practise bombs to gain height and external fuel tank.
This is a standard operating procedure of IAF in case of a bird-hit. The small practise bombs dropped from the plane have been recovered by the IAF as they had fallen in the city, said sources.
The IAF will order a court of inquiry into this incident to investigate the reasons behind the bird hit.
A similar incident had taken place at Rolan village near Ambala cantonment in April this year. In this case, the pilot had dropped the external fuel tanks in the fields to land back the aircraft to safety at the Ambala airbase.