All six officers on board the Mi-17 V5 helicopter of Indian Air Force were killed after it crashed in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam on Wednesday morning, according to sources.
"All six air warriors on board the helicopter suffered fatal injuries," sources told ANI.
The Mi-17 V5 chopper that took off from Srinagar airfield at around 10 AM for a routine mission crashed around 10:10 AM, just 10 minutes after it went airborne. A court of inquiry has been set up to probe the matter.
The crash comes a day after India carried out air strikes at Jaish-e-Mohammed terror camp in Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day India said it had foiled an attempt by Pakistan Air Force this morning to carry out strikes in Jammu and Kashmir by shooting down an F-16 fighter plane while losing its own MiG-21 jet after which a pilot was "missing in action".
The Pakistani Air Force plane was detected and the alert Indian Air Force responded instantly, foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, adding in the aerial engagement, one Pakistan Air Force plane was shot down by MiG-21 Bison fighter aircraft of India.
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"The Pakistani aircraft was seen by the ground forces falling from the sky on the Pakistan side, Kumar said.
"In this engagement, we have unfortunately lost one MiG-21. The pilot is missing in action. Pakistan has claimed that he is in their custody. We are ascertaining the facts," he said.
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