Coast Guard helicopter makes forced landing in Kochi

Kochi: An incident of forced landing of an ALH Dhruv Mark 3 helicopter of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) took place on Sunday in Kochi while the pilots of the force were testing the chopper.
The Cochin International Airport authority informed that the airport operations have been temporarily suspended after the incident. "The incident happened while the helicopter was taking off for a training sortie. No casualties were reported", said the officials.
The airport officials informed that the ALH was removed from the operational area around 2 pm and the runway has been cleared substantially after a safety inspection. Flight operation is expected to be resumed soon.
According to the officials, the incident happened at around 12.20 pm.
"As a Coast Guard ALH helicopter was involved in an accident while taking off from CIAL at 1225 pm today, airport operation had to be suspended temporarily for 2 hrs", said the officials.
The chopper was at around 25 feet in height when it had to make a forced landing, as informed by the ICG officials.
The fleet of ALH Dhruv choppers has been grounded since March 8 after a Navy chopper met with an accident off the coast of Mumbai. (ANI)