Indian air force officer fired for Feb 2019 ‘friendly choper attack’

According to an Indian media report published on Tuesday, India’s top military court ordered the dismissal of an air force group captain for a missile attack on a friendly Mi-17 helicopter on February 27, 2019, resulting in the deaths of six servicemen and a civilian.

It stated that on February 27, 2019, a General Court Martial (GCM) in New Delhi ordered the dismissal of Group Captain Suman Roy Chowdhury, the then Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Srinagar Air Force Station, for a missile attack on a friendly Mi-17 helicopter.

On February 27, 2019, five people were killed in a helicopter crash in the Budgam district of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), including four Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel.

The crash occurred on the same day that the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) shot down two Indian warplanes for invading its airspace while responding to a Pakistani aerial mission on targets inside IIOJK.

Read More: IMF reduced Pakistan’s GDP forecast for FY23 to 0.5%.

Pakistani forces also managed to capture IAF pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who was only held captive for two days before being released in a peace gesture from Pakistan.

According to an Indian media report, air force officials stated that the GCM findings and sentence were subject to confirmation by the IAF chief.

Group Captain Chowdhury has been found guilty on five of the nine charges, including failing to comply with a general order issued by the country’s Air Headquarters “requiring all aircraft operating north of latitude 3200 N to operate with Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) on.”

According to the report, the group captain allowed the Mi-17 to take off without the IFF and is charged with “assigning an inbound flying object to the missile unit at 10:10 am on February 27, 2019, at 23 km from the Srinagar base for engagement by the Mission Commander, Command and Control Unit of 2258 Squadron.”

As a result, it claimed that the assigned flying target, a friendly copter Mi-17, was shot down by a “Spyder missile at 10:14 a.m.”

According to the report, those killed included Squadron Leaders S Vashisht and Ninand M, Sergeant VK Pandey, Sergeant Vikrant Sahrawat, Corporal Pankaj Kumar, Corporal D Pandey, and Kifayat Hussain Ganie, a civilian on the ground and resident of the Budgam district.