POOR WEATHER on Monday morning forced a six-seater helicopter to force land on a school park.
The helicopter, with inscription ?JA9AWD? boldly written on its side, was from Accra heading to Chirano in the Western Region.
Two people were in the chopper.
Upon reaching Menang, near New Edubiase in the Ashanti Region, the pilot encountered some visibility problems.
Sensing danger, the pilot landed on St. Michael International School?s park at Menang amidst confusion. School children and their teachers were left stunned when the helicopter made the emergency landing.
The pilot was spotted emerging from the helicopter on the sandy half-grassed park of the school at Menang, a farming community in the Adansi South District.
The incident, which happened around 9:35am, comes after a plane crash at the El Wak Stadium that killed 10 passengers onboard a 207 Benz bus, barely two months ago.
Emmanuel Amoako, head-teacher of Menang D/A Primary School, said while frightened school children of the school ran for cover, curious residents of the area who heard the sound of the helicopter rushed to the scene to catch a glimpse.
He disclosed that the onlookers watched in amazement as the two crew members emerged from the aircraft.
According to the head-teacher, the pilot, who gave his name as Captain Anderson, told them they were forced to make the emergency landing because of bad weather.
Mr. Amoako said the pilot indicated that they were heading towards Chirano from Accra, and upon reaching the Menang area, detected high amount of fog in the air, compelling them to land.
He said he had never seen a helicopter land there before, adding that people thought it had crashed when they heard of the incident initially.
An eyewitness, Isaac K. Normanyo, said luckily nobody was hurt.
He said students were in class studying when the incident took place.
Normanyo noted that the pilot and the other person on board the helicopter were also in good health.
Other witnesses disclosed that around 7am yesterday, they saw the helicopter heading to Chirano direction.
They disclosed that minutes later, they saw it heading towards the direction it came from earlier on.
According to them, they noticed that the helicopter was shaking whilst in motion so they started to shout. They said minutes later, they realized that the helicopter was landing so they rushed to the scene.
On arrival, they saw that the helicopter had landed on St. Michael International School?s park.
They stated that the pilot said the weather was very bad so he decided to land to avert a disaster.
DAILY GUIDE later gathered that the pilot managed to fly the helicopter from the school park, about two hours after it had landed.
FROM I.F. Joe Awuah Jnr. & Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi
