The Indian Air Force on Monday successfully carried out a trial of emergency landing of aircraft on the National Highway-16 near Pichikalagudipadu village here, a police official said. Bapatla superintendent of police (SP) Vakul Jindal said two transport aircraft, AN-32 and Dornier, were part of the trial which was conducted as part of bolstering IAF’s emergency readiness to face any future exigency, the official said.
“The trial landing exercise has been completed successfully. Two transport aircraft, AN-32 and Dornier, landed,” Jindal told PTI. Jindal said that the 4.1 km-long emergency landing facility on the NH-16 will be available as an option to land aircrafts during wartime.
The exercise was executed twice in a span of two hours, starting from 11 am to 1 pm and to enable it, Bapatla district police diverted traffic from 7:30 am to 1 pm on the highway. The SP said that a few fighter jets, which included a Sukhoi Su-30, also flew by without landing on the facility.
