<p>"I can recall two earlier incidents where Indian pilots landed inside Pakistan during war times and were taken as Prisoners of War (PoW) but then returned safely.<br /><br />"First was during 1965 war when Air Marshal Sikand (then Sqn Ldr) and second time when Flt Lt K Nachiketa was shot down over Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) during the Kargil war," Air Marshal (retd) A K Singh told PTI here.<br /><br />Singh, who was Western Air Commander till 2007, also took part in the Kargil war as the in-charge of air operations of the command. He said on both the occasions, the pilots were released after remaining in captivity for relatively a longer time as they were taking part in war operations and were on enemy territory.<br /><br />Flt Lt Nachiketa was taken as a prisoner by the Pakistan Army on 27 May 1999 following ejection from his MiG-27 aircraft after suffering engine flame-out and sent back to India on June 3, 1999 after being interrogated by the authorities there.<br /><br />"In today's incident, the two pilots had strayed into their territory due to inclement weather and there is no war or war-like situation between the two sides. The helicopter was also not meant for any kind of reconnaissance mission," Singh said.<br /><br />The former Commander said during the 2005 earthquake relief operations, there were a few instances where Pakistani choppers had strayed over the Line of Control (LoC) over to the Indian side but since it was for humanitarian effort, no one objected to it.</p>
<p>"I can recall two earlier incidents where Indian pilots landed inside Pakistan during war times and were taken as Prisoners of War (PoW) but then returned safely.<br /><br />"First was during 1965 war when Air Marshal Sikand (then Sqn Ldr) and second time when Flt Lt K Nachiketa was shot down over Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) during the Kargil war," Air Marshal (retd) A K Singh told PTI here.<br /><br />Singh, who was Western Air Commander till 2007, also took part in the Kargil war as the in-charge of air operations of the command. He said on both the occasions, the pilots were released after remaining in captivity for relatively a longer time as they were taking part in war operations and were on enemy territory.<br /><br />Flt Lt Nachiketa was taken as a prisoner by the Pakistan Army on 27 May 1999 following ejection from his MiG-27 aircraft after suffering engine flame-out and sent back to India on June 3, 1999 after being interrogated by the authorities there.<br /><br />"In today's incident, the two pilots had strayed into their territory due to inclement weather and there is no war or war-like situation between the two sides. The helicopter was also not meant for any kind of reconnaissance mission," Singh said.<br /><br />The former Commander said during the 2005 earthquake relief operations, there were a few instances where Pakistani choppers had strayed over the Line of Control (LoC) over to the Indian side but since it was for humanitarian effort, no one objected to it.</p>