Hundreds of school kids in Chinhat on the outskirts of Lucknow had a whale of a time on Wednesday.
They stayed back in the school till late in the evening, called in their parents, friends, relatives for a rare sighting — a helicopter that had been grounded on the school campus.
The kids happily posed for keepsake photos in front of the copter, made video recordings on their mobiles and some even screamed with joy on touching it.
While the grounded helicopter brought joy to scores of school children and the locals, it left two families deeply disappointed and angry.
The helicopter had been booked by Rampal Yadav, a SP MLC from Sitapur, for his son’s wedding and was to fly the newly-married couple from Lucknow to Biswan in Sitapur after the wedding.
After the wedding on Tuesday night, the bidai ceremony took place on Wednesday afternoon and when bride Ankita, groom Ramendra and three senior family members sat in the copter to fly to Sitapur, it developed a technical snag.
The on-duty pilot and engineer, V.S. Pundir and Bhaskar Kumar, informed their inability to fly the copter and this left the entire family crestfallen.
The helicopter had been hired from Aryan Aviation Pvt Ltd and all permissions for landing were in order. The Bell 407 helicopter had flown from Delhi to Ranchi on Tuesday and flew to Lucknow on Wednesday morning.
Rampal Yadav had reportedly agreed to pay `60,000 for every hour of flying plus applicable sundry charges to the aviation company.
A long debate between the two-member crew and the Yadav clan followed and the matter landed up at Chinhat police station.
Rampal Yadav gave a complaint to the police demanding a compensation of `7.50 lakh for the unexpected turn of events and also alleged that the helicopter charter company had duped him intentionally.
Later in the night on Tuesday, the legislator withdrew the complaint and his entire booking amount was refunded by the aviation company.
The couple, meanwhile, left in a fleet of SUVs for Biswan but dozens of their supporters stayed back at the police station till late in the night when the matter was finally settled.