New Delhi; GANASHAKTI: Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria on Friday admitted that the Mi-17 IAF helicopter that crashed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam on February 27, the day Indian and Pakistani air forces were engaged in a fierce dogfight, was hit by an Indian missile.
“The Court of Inquiry was completed and it was our mistake as our missile hit our own chopper. We will take action against two officers. We accept this was our big mistake and we will ensure such mistakes are not repeated in future,” Bhadauria said in the first admission by the air force about the incident.
The helicopter was flown by Sqdn Leader Siddharth Vashisht with other members Sqdn Ldr Ninad Mandvgane, Kumar Pandey, Sergeant Vikrant Sehrawat, Corporals Deepak Pandey and Pankaj Kumar. It crashed at Budgam after taking off from Srinagar airport at 10.10am, soon after Pakistani Air Force jets had attempted to violate the Indian airspace at around 9.30am on February 27.
The Pakistani Air Force, after intruding in Rajouri sector of Jammu region, was attempting a similar misadventure in Uri sector of North Kashmir's Baramulla around the same time when the helicopter was airborne from Srinagar airfield.
The domination of IAF fighter jets made Pakistan abandon its misadventure at Uri but the air defence system is believed to have fired at the helicopter by then, killing all the personnel and a civilian on the ground, officials had said at the time of the incident. A high-level probe had found at least four officers guilty for the crash.
The probe found that the 'Identification of Friend or Foe' (IFF) system on-board the helicopter was switched off and there was a “vital gap” in communication and coordination between the ground staff and the crew of the chopper. The IFF helps air defence radars identify whether an aircraft or helicopter is friendly or hostile.
In early May, the IAF transferred the Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of Srinagar base to ensure a thorough probe into the incident.
Pakistan Armed Forces spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor had thenn said Islamabad had no involvement in the crash. “There are reports of crash of an Indian aircraft on the Indian side, we had no engagement with that aircraft,” he said.
