Helicopter lands on private NL beach

New London – A helicopter made a "precautionary landing" on a private beach on Pequot Avenue Saturday afternoon due to bad weather, according to a spokesman with the Federal Aviation Administration.

The pilot of the twin-engine helicopter landed on the beach by Thames Yacht Club around 4 p.m. due to heavy fog, according to New London police Detective Frank Jarvis. According to its FAA registration, the aicraft belongs to Meridian Consulting I Corp. Inc., of Kearny, N.J.

FAA spokesman Jim Peters said the pilot notified the air-traffic control tower at Groton-New London Airport of the precautionary landing and called in a mechanic "to make the checks necessary so that the helicopter may be able to take off."

The helicopter was still on the beach Saturday evening.

"They're not going to land where they're going to put people in harm's way," Peters said of unscheduled landings. "We will make the assumption here that the pilot saw the beach and made sure that everything was clear. … The pilot exercised his judgment and made the landing."