A Russian Air Defense Forces officer has been convicted for shooting down his country’s Military-Space Forces Mi-8 helicopter instead of a Ukrainian drone during the defense of Crimea, Report informs, citing Kommersant.
Officer Igor Pashkov was sentenced for negligence causing the death of three people.
On October 18, 2023, Pashkov confused the call sign of a detected low-flying, slow-moving air target and reported its location incorrectly to leadership, ignoring additional information that the target was a helicopter with lights on. Two minutes later, this led to the destruction of the Mi-8 by fire from a Tor-M2DT anti-aircraft missile system, resulting in the death of three crew members.
“According to the Military Investigation Department of Russia’s Investigative Committee, the officer failed to properly identify the aircraft and its location due to a negligent attitude towards service, which led to the transmission of incorrect information and the ‘friendly fire’ downing of a helicopter belonging to Russia’s Military-Space Forces,” the article states.
