New Delhi, June 27:A mishap was averted on Thursday morning after an alert fighter jet pilot on seeing his engine hit by a bird, quickly dropped external fuel tanks and landed back.
The incident occurred at the IAF’s vital base at Ambala. A Jaguar jet had taken off on a training sortie when a bird got sucked into the engine. The engine in such cases gets stalled. The British-built Jaguar has two engines and the pilot used the other engine to land back at the base.
But before that the extra load of fuel had to be dropped and the training bomb (without explosives) had to be jettisoned.
Pilots are trained to jettison fuel tanks over open areas. The base, one of the oldest in the country, has seen growth of habitation around it. Over the years, some construction has come up just along the western perimeter wall of the base.
