Pilot Among 4 Killed as Military Aircraft Crashes in J&K's Budgam Amid LoC Tensions
The jet crashed in an open field near Garend Kalaan village in Budgam at 10.05 am, officials said.
The IAF jet that crashed in Budgam.
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Srinagar: All four personnel onboard an Indian military chopper were killed on Wednesday when the aircraft crashed in Budgam district of Jammu and Kashmir amid border tensions with Pakistan.
The aircraft crashed in an open field near Garend Kalaan village in Budgam at 10:05 am, officials said. It broke into two and caught fire immediately, senior officials said, adding that two bodies were seen near the site of crash. The identity of the deceased could not be confirmed immediately.
Senior defence officials said the aircraft, an MI-17 chopper, crashed after developing technical snag.
However, the Pakistan military claimed it had shot down the aircraft along with another Indian jet after they “violated Pakistani airspace”. Major General Asif Ghafoor, the head of the media wing of Pakistan’s military, had earlier claimed in a tweet that one of the aircraft fell in Jammu and Kashmir, while the other fell in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The crash happened a day after IAF warplanes struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, around 80 kilometres from the Line of Control.
Meanwhile, Pakistani jets violated the Indian airspace as they entered border areas of Nowshera sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, PTI said, as it quoted unnamed officials.
According to officials, the plane crash is a separate incident and has nothing to do with the Pakistani jets entering Indian airspace. Officials said the Pakistani fighter jets that violated Indian air space in Nowshera sector were immediately repelled by IAF jet on air patrol.
The aircraft crashed in an open field near Garend Kalaan village in Budgam at 10:05 am, officials said. It broke into two and caught fire immediately, senior officials said, adding that two bodies were seen near the site of crash. The identity of the deceased could not be confirmed immediately.
Senior defence officials said the aircraft, an MI-17 chopper, crashed after developing technical snag.
However, the Pakistan military claimed it had shot down the aircraft along with another Indian jet after they “violated Pakistani airspace”. Major General Asif Ghafoor, the head of the media wing of Pakistan’s military, had earlier claimed in a tweet that one of the aircraft fell in Jammu and Kashmir, while the other fell in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
The crash happened a day after IAF warplanes struck a Jaish-e-Mohammed training camp in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, around 80 kilometres from the Line of Control.
Meanwhile, Pakistani jets violated the Indian airspace as they entered border areas of Nowshera sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, PTI said, as it quoted unnamed officials.
According to officials, the plane crash is a separate incident and has nothing to do with the Pakistani jets entering Indian airspace. Officials said the Pakistani fighter jets that violated Indian air space in Nowshera sector were immediately repelled by IAF jet on air patrol.