Almost month after India – Pakistan fighter jets dogfight many questions regarding detail of aerial confrontation still remained Unanswered
One of the biggest mystery yet to be answered is the Crash of Indian Air Force Mi-17V5 helicopter Crash In J&K’s Budgam
Here is a brief Summary of February 2019 IAF – PAF Air skirmishes
On 26 February Indian Air Force violated the Line of Control (LOC) to conduct what it called “preemptive” aerial strikes in Pakistan. On the latter day, Pakistan Air Force violated the Line of Control and conducted airstrikes in Indian-administered Kashmir and claimed that it had shot down two Indian jets over Pakistani airspace. Pakistan also managed to capture one Indian pilot, Abhinandan Varthaman, and he was subsequently released on 1 March as a peace gesture
During these Air skirmishes On 27 February, 2019 Indian Air Force Mi17V5 helicopter also crashed in Indian-administered Kashmir, resulting in deaths of all six airmen onboard and one Civilian on the ground. Here are the details of IAF Mi17V5 helicopter crash: Link
The chopper had gone down in a ten-minute span when IAF jets were scrambling to ward off PAF fighters who were approaching Indian airspace
The timing and wreckage of IAF Mi17V5 helicopter crash is raising many serious questions
An investigation into the cause of the IAF Mi17V5 chopper crash is still going on. Investigators are focusing on the sequence of events that led to the crash
A defence source told The Economic Times that all possible angles would be probed with regard to the crash, including that of friendly fire, keeping in mind the fact that air defence systems near Srinagar were in operation at the time.
Eyewitnesses had reportedly heard a loud explosion in the air just before the chopper went down, indicating the possibility of some external event causing the crash, reported The Economic Times.
https://twitter.com/schaheid/status/1108591452328742915
As Pakistan has denied playing any role in the chopper’s crash, despite accepting that an aerial battle had taken place over Nowshera and acknowledging that they had downed an Indian fighter jet at the time.
It seems that either Friendly fire or Technical Error are the logical reason that might resulted in tragedy.
At the time of the crash, air defence systems were on High operational alert. The command and control systems were under immense pressure.
As many Eyewitnesses reported that they heard a loud explosion in the air before the chopper went down and after examining the video of the helicopter wreckage uploaded on social media the probability of Blue on blue seems very high.
An Indian Air Force fighter jet Mi-17V5 has crashed in Kashmir Today morning – raw footage from close to the crash site taken by residents pic.twitter.com/rHOt0KuD48
— Harsha H Hanumegowda (@Harsha_Reports) February 27, 2019
There is a possibility that Indian Air defence system or IAF fighter jets in the air might have mistakenly confused Mi17V5 chopper with enemy jets
In the recent past, a similar incident happened in Syria when Syrian Air defence accidentally shot down Russians Il-20 Military Aircraft confusing it with Israeli Air Force fighter jet
Well in case of Mi17V5 chopper crash A court of inquiry was ordered and the family of the pilots were assured that the inquiry would bring out the reason behind the crash in “10 to 15 days.”
But after almost a month tragic incident IAF has not released the finding of the court of inquiry
The Indian air defence systems, mostly controlled by the IAF, have inbuilt safeguards to identify and distinguish between friend and foe. If indeed the cause of the crash is found to be friendly fire, this would mean a breach in multiple layers of safeguards, according to the report.
