‘IAF chopper shot down in friendly fire a big mistake’
NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) Mi-17 V5 helicopter that crashed in Kashmir on February 27, killing six IAF personnel and a civilian, was brought down by “friendly fire,” Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, said on Friday in the first official confirmation of what caused the downing of the chopper.
The Russian-origin utility helicopter crashed near Srinagar even as Indian and Pakistani fighter jets were engaging other in the Nowshera sector of Jammu and Kashmir, one day after IAF aircraft bombed a Jaish-e-mohammed terror camp in Balakot, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
“It was a big mistake,” Bhadauria said and added that two officers “will be proceeded against” for violating standard operating procedures that led to the friendly fire, a term used for an attack launched by mistake by a military force on a unit from its own country .
The Court of Inquiry (COI) into the Mi-17 V5 crash has just been completed and it showed the IAF had shot down the helicopter by mistake, the IAF chief said. Bhadauria said the IAF was considering designating all personnel killed in the crash as “battle casualties”, which would allow the families of the deceased a higher pension among other benefits.
Hindustan Times first reported in May that the chopper was downed by a surface-to-air missile of the IAF, which mistook the aircraft to be hostile.
Days after the crash, then Chief of Air Staff BS Dhanoa had told the IAF that officers found guilty would not be protected.
The inquiry into the accident indicated several lapses leading to the downing of the helicopter. For instance, the inquiry faulted air traffic control for calling back the helicopter as the aerial engagement between Indian and Pakistani fighters intensified. Ideally, the helicopter should have been sent away to a safer zone instead of being called back to base.
Also, the incoming helicopter should have been vectored to the pre-designated zone that is meant for friendly aircraft until the air defence alert was called off.
THE AIR FORCE INQUIRY INTO THE INCIDENT INDICATED SEVERAL LAPSES THAT LED TO THE DOWNING OF THE IAF HELICOPTER