Russian serviceman sentenced for mistakenly shooting down Russian helicopter
A court in Sevastopol sentenced Russian serviceman Igor Pashkov to two years and ten months in a penal colony for mistakenly shooting down a Russian helicopter instead of a Ukrainian drone in Crimea, the Kommersant newspaper said.
Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Хомелка, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Mil Mi-8 over Belarus
The serviceman shot down the helicopter in the morning of October 18, 2023, killing three crew members.
Pashkov was charged with committing negligent acts that resulted in the death of three people. He faced up to seven years in prison.
The Defense Ministry wanted to collect 204 million rubles from the man, estimating the amount of the downed helicopter. The court only collected five million from the defendant.
This is the first sentence that was handed down to an air defense officer for negligence demonstrated during efforts to repel Ukraine’s drone attack on Crimea.
Details
The Mil Mi-8 is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. Russian production of the aircraft model still continues as of 2024. In addition to its most common role as a transport helicopter, the Mi-8 is also used as an airborne command post, armed gunship, and reconnaissance platform. The Mi-8 is the world’s most-produced helicopter, with over 17,000 units used by over 50 countries. As of 2015, when combined with the related Mil Mi-17, the two helicopters are the third most common operational military aircraft in the world.
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