Panic as Army parachute with load drops at Yamunanagar

New Delhi, October 31

A parachute with a military-type load that landed near Yamunanagar last night, causing panic, has been identified as the Army’s parachute used for training.

The parachute landed in southern Yamuna canal near Hamida. Sources said this was one of Army’s four GPS-aided Precision Air Drop System (GPADS) dropped last evening from the IAF’s C130 special operations plane around 5.15 pm. All four parachutes had been dropped from an altitude of 12,000 ft. Other than the one that landed near the canal, the other three have been accounted for as they landed at the designated spot.

The C-130 had taken off from Sarsawa air base in Uttar Pradesh, some 19 km southwest of Yamunanagar. The intended drop was Behat, near the Yamuna, close to Sarsawa. These parachutes are auto-guided by an onboard system and drop the load to the designated area. In the case of the astray parachute, the system seems to have malfunctioned at 3,000 ft, causing the parachute and the load to reach the canal, and not Behat.