India says helicopter may have been shot down

November 14, 2000
Web posted at: 7:50 AM HKT (2350 GMT)

NEW DELHI, India (Reuters) -- The Indian Air Force raised the possibility on Monday that a helicopter which crashed near the country's western border with Pakistan, killing seven of the 12 people on board, could have been shot down.

"It is a possibility but it is premature to say that at this moment," Air Chief Marshall A.Y. Tipnis told Star News television.

Earlier in the day rescuers found five survivors in the wreckage of the Russian-made MI-8 helicopter which crashed into the marshy Rann of Kutch -- an area where India and Pakistan have a longstanding maritime border dispute -- on Sunday.

Indian Air Force spokesman Rajesh Dhingra told Reuters the survivors reported that while on a border patrol they had taken the helicopter down to around 50 meters (165 feet) above sea level to take a look at three fishing boats. The next thing they remembered was that the helicopter had crashed into the ground.

"The boats remained in that area for five to six hours without coming close to the helicopter," Dhingra said. "And the co-pilot who survived the crash confirmed that there was nothing wrong with the chopper until that time."

Dhingra said the paramilitary Border Security Force had reported that there were no Indian fishing boats operating in that area at the time of the crash.

"We will carry out preliminary investigations in the morning," the spokesman said.

The wreckage was found about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the border with Pakistan, off the coast of the western Indian state of Gujarat.

The salt-marsh terrain was the scene of fierce fighting in the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, and it remains a source of tension between the nuclear-capable neighbors.*

In August 1999, the Indian Air Force shot down a Pakistani naval aircraft in the Rann of Kutch region, killing 16 on board. India said the Pakistani plane had strayed into its airspace while Pakistan said India shot it down over Pakistani territory.

There were eight BSF personnel and four air crew on the helicopter when it went missing on Sunday.

Air force helicopters searched through the night for the aircraft, troops on camels scoured the water-logged area and officials from Pakistan had also been helping the operation.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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