Senior officers of IAF may face action for the helicopter crash near Srinagar on February 27 after it was shot by own ground air defence leading to the death of six IAF personnel on board and a civilian on ground. A Court of Inquiry is on to fix responsibility for deaths caused by friendly fire and the Commanding Officer of the Srinagar airbase has been sacked.

Though the IAF on Tuesday refrained from giving details of the incident or the findings of the probe, sources said the air defence fired an Israeli-made SPYDER surface-to-air missile on February 27 from the Srinagar airbase after it mistook the MI-17 helicopter to be hostile. If found guilty, the officers may be booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under the IAF Act 1950 and be jailed.

This lapse could have taken place as the entire IAF was alert that day as in the morning an aerial battle had taken place in Rajouri sector when the Pakistani jets had tried to target Indian military installations in retaliation to IAF air strikes in Balakot day earlier.

Sources said the entire shoot-down sequence from the moment the missile was launched to the moment of impact lasted approximately 12 seconds. The Mi-17 helicopter had no means of knowing it was under attack.

While the air battle was on, air defence was in full state of alert with surface-to-air missile units ready to engage any intruding Pakistani aircraft.

It was at this time that air defence radars at Srinagar airport picked up a low-flying aircraft on their screens. The senior officer manning the post of Terminal Weapons Director (TWD) at the time was likely the Chief Operations Officer of the airbase.

This officer may have given the final order to fire after the helicopter, designated a slow flying target, could not be identified through a critical system called the Identification, Friend or Foe (IFF) transponder, sources said.

IFF systems onboard an aircraft listen for an “interrogation signal” from the ground and then respond with a unique signal which identifies it as a “friendly”. The system is specifically designed to ensure that friendly-fire incidents are avoided during the heat of battle. It is unclear if the IAF helicopter’s IFF was functioning at the time.

There was a likelihood of not adhering to a series of additional steps which have to be followed in the moments prior to the launch of the SPYDER surface-to-air missile. The role of the IAF’s Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Srinagar airbase is being looked into.

It is unclear whether the Terminal Weapons Director enquired and was told by the ATC that no friendly aircraft were flying in the area.