NEW DELHI — It wasn't a sight morning commuters were quite prepared for. The Indian Air Force (IAF) landed a fighter plane -- the Mirage 2000 -- on the expressway near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, as a part of an exercise to test the use of national highways for emergency landings.
The aircraft landed at about 6:40 AM, a senior IAF officer told PTI, adding that the force has plans to activate more such stretches on highways in the future.
"The IAF has been considering the use of national highways for emergency landing by fighter aircrafts," an IAF official told IANS. The official added that the exercise was done in complete coordination with the district administration of Agra and Mathura, and all necessary security preparations were in place.
According to Zee News and The Times of India, such an exercise was carried out for the first time.
Countries including Poland, Germany, South Korea, Sweden, Finland, Taiwan, Switzerland, Singapore as well as Pakistan use their expressways and highways for their military airplanes to land and take off in case of emergencies, reported TOI.
But despite the lengthy preparations by the IAF as well as the Government officials, the NDTV reported that the airplane's landing led to a traffic jam on the highway for several hours.
For this trial, all facilities such as the make-shift Air Traffic Control, safety services, rescue vehicles, bird clearance parties and other requirements were set up by the IAF, reported PTI
Source :Huffingtonpost
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