Indian Air Force has transferred the Air Officer Commanding of the Srinagar air base in the middle of a Court of Inquiry on the “friendly fire” episode of February 27 in which a Mi-17 V5 IAF helicopter was allegedly shot down by India's own air defence system mistaking it as the enemy aircraft.
This is the first action on the part of the IAF, which initiated the investigation within hours of the unfortunate incident in which six air warriors were killed. One civilian was also reportedly killed.
Though typically such internal investigations are completed within 90 days, this particular probe might take some more time as the Air Headquarters was awaiting the metallurgical analysis report from a Bengaluru-based laboratory, sources said.
These reports are essential to reconstruct the entire incident in the absence of the chopper's black box that could not be found.
While there are no official word beyond a brief press statement issued on February 27, sources said the chopper took off from the Srinagar airbase around 10 am and was hit by a surface-to-air missile leading to its crash near Budgam ten minutes later.
The helicopter was mistaken as the enemy platform leading to the missile strike. What leads to such mistaken identification is under investigation.
The roles of the AOC who was the senior most officer of the base, the terminal weapons director who cleared the missile firing and the air traffic controller of the Srinagar base are under investigation. If proven guilty, the persons responsible for firing the missile could be booked under serious criminal charges.
Every IAF aircraft is fitted with Identification of the Friend or Foe (IFF) system that allows the ground control to differentiate between an enemy and friendly aircraft. The Mi-17 V5's IFF system was switched off for reasons that are not clear at the moment.
In the absence of the IFF, the ill-fated helicopter was considered as an enemy aircraft by the air defence apparatus which was on high alert due to the aerial skirmish between Indian and Pakistani air forces a day after the Balakot air strike.
About 20 minutes after the Mi-17 crash Wg Cdr Abhinandan Varthaman's MiG-21 crashed inside Pakistan after it hit a PAF F-16 jet.
More than 20 PAF aircraft took to the sky though only three of the crossed the Line of Control and attempted to strike at Indian military establishments in Jammu and Kashmir. They were countered by eight IAF jets.
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