The boys at Monmouth School, in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, are given a surprise treat when a warning light forces the helicopter to land immediately

Pilots of a stricken Army helicopter gunship made an emergency landing – on a school’s sports field.
They then phoned the school to apologise, and explained that a warning light had forced them to land immediately.
It was a surprise treat for the boys at Monmouth School, Monmouthshire in south-east Wales.

The two pilots from the Army Air Corps at Middle Wallop Airfield, Hampshire, were half way through a training flight to Shawbury, Shropshire, when their flight management computer warned them of a fault on their Apache attack helicopter.

A pilot flying in formation with them knew the area and suggested landing at his old school.
The Apache pilot then phoned the school, to say he’d landed his helicopter on their fields.

They touched down at around 11am on Thursday and remained there overnight. It was still there on Friday morning.

Dave Chowns, the School’s bursar, used to be an aerosystems engineer officer (wing commander) in the Royal Air Force.
He said: “I saw the helicopter circling around for a while.
“The next thing I knew, the pilot rang me out of courtesy to let me know they had landed in our field.

“He said the light started flashing which means ‘land immediately’, so he did.
“An old boy of the School was flying in formation with them and knew where there would be a good place to land.
“It’s not something that happens every day.
“As someone with an interest in aircraft, I think it’s lovely.

The landing went smoothly and attracted around 50 members of the public to come and take photographs.
The engineers have been summoned and it is thought the gunship will be fixed and on its way as soon as possible

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