Video footage showing a Russian Ka-52 Alligator attack helicopter accidentally firing rockets at observers during a training exercise, reportedly part of the larger Zapad 2017 events happening along the country’s western borders.
Three people were injured in the incident at the Zapad 2017 drills, a source close to the Russian Ministry of Defence told RBC news agency. “They weren’t civilians,” the source said.
The clips that initially emerged on Sept. 19, 2017, show a pair of Ka-52s flying toward a ground of troops and civilians apparently watching a military maneuver.
One of them then unexpectedly fires a pair of a rocket into the onlookers, damaging a number of vehicles, including a civilian car and what appears to be a mobile command center truck.
Another video subsequently appeared online, showing what looked like the view through the Ka-52’s Heads Up Display system. The exact circumstances of the incident are still unclear. One unconfirmed written statement said that the helicopter had inadvertently fired two S-8 80mm rockets damaging the car and truck, as well as wounding three bystanders, during a training mission on Sept. 16, 2017.
"Dashcam video" of Ka-52 helicopter that hit watchers https://t.co/SiHyWYmI5h pic.twitter.com/YjjtwjxGAZ via @CITeam_ru
— Liveuamap (@Liveuamap) September 19, 2017
“The targeting system of one of the helicopters erroneously locked on a wrong target,” the press release continued. “A hit by an unguided air-to-surface missile caused damage to a truck, but no people were hurt.”
Officials from Russia’s Western Military District subsequently denied than anyone had gotten hurt in the accident and said that the training exercise was separate from the larger Zapad 2017 maneuvers.
“All the reports on social media about a barrage of rockets hitting a crowd of journalist and a large number of casualties are either a deliberate provocation or someone’s personal stupidity,” it declared in an official statement.
The video from the HUD point of view does show a reticule move closer to the impact area before the rockets fly away, but we don’t know how or even if the helicopter’s targeting system meshes that information with a decision to automatically launch unguided rockets. No known version of the S-8 has any sort of guidance system at all, especially one that would require a positive lock-on before launch.
