Huey has emergency landing in a dam

Published Jan 26, 2007

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By John Yeld

A Huey helicopter made an emergency landing in a dam near De Doorns late on Thursday afternoon while helping to fight a fire in the area.

Working on Fire spokesperson Val Charlton said only the pilot had been aboard and he had not been injured.

She denied that the aircraft had crashed, as was suggested by other helicopter pilots on Thursday night. She said "crash" was not the appropriate word.

"It was an emergency landing in the water, in the dam, which is obviously the safest place to land. He had to dump and he dumped in the dam.

"There was just the pilot on board and he emerged unscathed," she said.

The incident had been reported to the civil aviation authorities and would be investigated, Charlton said.

Working on Fire had a long battle to get licences to operating a number of Hueys in their anti-fire campaign.

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