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Defection of Two MI-24, HIND - Miran Shah to Qasim
On 13th July 1985, Major Iftikhar TJ, was flying in the circuit of Qasim Base, when he got a call to make full stop landing and immediately report to base commander. He was told that two MI-8 helicopters of Afghan Air
Force had landed at Miran Shah. After some time Major Iftikhar alongwith Major Khalid Nawaz, Major Tariq Choudhry, and Captain Shahnawaz Badr landed at Miranshah Air Field in a UH-1H helicopter. The two helicopters were camouflaged under 'Saroots'. When these were removed, Pakistani pilots were completely surprised. They had never seen these helicopters before.
They were not the MI-8s but the renowned MI-24, fully loaded with rockets, missiles and guns.
There were Afghan pilots as well on board. Local commanders wanted these helicopters to leave quickly, due to threat Russian air attack.
Major Iftikhar narrates;
"The scary part was the tandem seat arrangements the good point was that cyclic, rudder, pedals and flying instruments were similar to MI-8. We could not trust the Afghan pilots and neither we had the time to undergo any kind of conversion on these MI-24s. I thus decided to fly them".
Meanwhile Major Tariq got one MI-24 started by the Afghan pilot, and then taxied for some time and later
hovered it, before switching it off. He announced that he was ready to fly.
One Combat Air Patrol (CAP) of PAF Mirages was scrambled from Mianwali Air Base to provide cover to these helicopters.
In One MI-24 tail No.28 the crew consisted of Major Iftikhar and Major Khalid Nawaz and the other helicopter tail No. 12 had Major Tariq and Captain Badr.
Afghan pilots were told to sit in the cargo compartment but they refused when they saw Pakistani pilots getting ready to fly these machines without any conversion, they were made to sit on gun point. Major Iftikhar further narrates; "Cyclic had lot of buttons, I was unaware of any of them thus I flew without any trimmers, we were maintaining 1 000 feet above ground level. After take off a strange female voice came on the radio transmission. I asked Major Tariq about this and he also confirmed this. We thought that Russians were searching us (Russian female voice in fact is a recorder which announces certain checks and procedures). After 25 minutes of flying, I got a call from Major Tariq that fuel is dripping in his cockpit and rest of the engine instruments are in green limits. There was no landing site available. We kept on flying on five minutes basis, thus we flew one hour before we came out of mountain ranges, we were left of Kalabagh. We landed across the River Indus in an open field. Major Tariq's cock-pit had half inch of fuel inside. We left that helicopter there and took off in the other helicopter (024) for Mianwali, which was another 30 minutes flying".
Major Tariq flying the other MI-24 narrates
'I was flying it like a MI-8, 1 kept the gauges especially the RPM within green limit, The Mirages were over head, around mid-way the Afghan Pilot announced on inter communication about "Benzi" dripping, I did not pay any heed, after some time the Afghan Pilot got panicked and announced "Benzi Boom, Boom". On a suitable site I landed"
Next day Afghan engineers, pilots and Major Tariq Choudhry went to the forced landed helicopter
(Guard was placed there )and brought it to Mianwali. Same day these two MI-24s landed at Dhamial after one hour and ten minutes of flying. There was a big reception waiting for them.
It was a historic event.
First time that MI-24 had landed in a non communist country.
Most importantly the Pakistan Army Aviation pilots have shown their prowess to the World. They had successfully flown these state of the art helicopters without any conversion or training, just relying upon their instincts.
All the four pilots belonged to the 4 Squadron. These two helicopters were locked in a hangar.
On 17th July 1985, President General Zia visited the hangar. There was a stream of visitors, American, British and Chinese even Russian Ambassador requested to see the new machines. Later Americans helped in unloading the rounds from the gun and accidentally one round was fired. Next flight of these defected helicopters took place on 19 th August 1985, when Major Iftikhar and Major Khalid flew them for thirty minutes. Check -list of these helicopters was made with the help of defected pilots.
On 7th November 1985, one MI-24 was successfully flown to Chaklala despite suffering hydraulic emergency by Colonel Razzaq and Major Iftikhar with Colonel Yousaf as flight engineer. This helicopter was later flown out in a Galaxy. Other MI-24 on 18 th January 1986 was flown by Major Tariq Choudhry to Murid Base.This helicopter remained there for another seven years before its next flight.
This pair was on a routine hunting mission of Mujaheedin and lost its way. This pair belonged to the Spetsnatz unit of the Russian Army and crew was also Russian.
They after landing as per their drill waited for the rescue and when it was late they started destroying the helicopters. One shepherd was watching all this.He walked many miles and told the Frontier Constablury(FC) about these helicopters, who reached the spot.
Russians initially offered combat to the FC but soon raised white flag.
Qasim Base was tasked to retrieve these helicopters. Team headed by Colonel Razzaq visited the site in a Puma helicopter. Initial plan envisaged the sling lift of the MI-24. However due to height and load factor it was disregarded. On 7th October 1987, a ground team reached there.
Pakistan Television made a movie of this, which was shown all over the world same night.
Major Malang Bukhari was the ground team member and flight engineer of MI-8 with almost two decades of experience.
He narrates "It was extremely cold at night, there was a constant danger of Russians rescue team as well. At times Russian jets and MI-24 were seen prowling in their own area. We started looking at the helicopter and realized that it would be unwise to start it. Russians had already fired many rounds in the cockpit and secondly one could not over-rule the possibility of some explosive devices for self destruction.
We started dismantling the helicopters, so they could be slung with a Puma.
The location of forced landing was such that Puma could not hover there, moreover the threat of flying Russian MI-24s dictated that fuselage should be taken by ground to a safe place.
On 14th October 1987 a British team also arrived for assistance. This operation lasted till 21 st December
1987 when all parts were removed from the site. All this was done in freezing cold.
MI-24 flown to Multan
After a lapse of seven years Lieutenant Colonel Zafar Iqbal and Captain Mumtaz Zia flew MI-24 for thirty minutes on 29th January 1993.
Lieutenant Colonel Mumtaz recalls;
'This MI-24 was parked in an isolated corner of the base,one tyre was flat, there were honey combs made in the undercarriage, nests in the engine exhaust, and all types of reptiles were seen crawling in and out. We cleaned it with the help of water bowzer. On the third day we put on the battery, flight engineer was Subedar Major Mir. The moment we switched on the circuit breakers, the 70 Kilogram blister canopy flew off twenty yards away, we switched off the helicopter.
With the help of National Institute of Modern Language(NIML) we got the manual translated and then meticulously disarmed all the circuits of the MI-24.
On 30th January 1993, we hovered it for 30 minutes and on 1st February we flew it in circuit for one hour and ten minutes.
On 4th February 1993 we got airborne from Murid for Multan, after 30 minutes we landed at Sargodha, where F-16 pilots were curious to have a look at it. unfortunately ten minutes short of Multan, smoke started coming out of cockpit due to some short circuit and we made a precautionary landing. After rectification of the fault we landed at Multan".
Interlude at Multan
For next four years it remained parked in a hangar at Multan on the inventory of No.4 Squadron.
Lieutenant Colonel Suhail Ekram narrates;
"When I saw the MI-24, it gave a real pathetic look, it seemed to be just a piece of junk, due to non maintenance, birds had made nests in its cowlings and it was full of dirt. It was standing tilted with one tire removed, rim and the wheel drum were also missing. After a week's effort it was located in a shop at 503 Workshop at Rawalpindi. Lieutenant Colonel Zulfiqar, then incharge of the Anti Narcotics Force was requested to allow his spare auxiliary unit to be used for our MI-24. That left only one problem and that was, main wheel tyre.
My operation officer Major Daud accidentally bought the tyre from Quetta market for 700 Rupees (14 US Dollars)
First a general maintenance team of all trades under Havildar Javed cleaned the helicopter and installed the new auxiliary starting unit and the acquired tire. In a few days the technicians had checked all systems relating to their own trades, found every system serviceable and in working condition. Crew later deciphered all switches and instruments.
The next week was spent in ground testing the helicopter for two hours and then air tested the helicopter for ten hours. The helicopter flew like a dream come true although I did not dare retract the wheels. I then requested permission to fly this helicopter to Quetta, a flying of more than four hours was involved. After
a lot of deliberation at every level we were permitted and we (Lieutenant Colonel Suhail and Captain Basit Durrani) flew the helicopter to Quetta safely.
TEXT is Copied from:
History of Pakistan Army Aviation 1947-2007
written by: Aamir Cheema, Muhammad Azam, Mushtaq Madni
@Ulla
@war&peace @Umair Nawaz
@HAKIKAT @ACE OF THE AIR
@LadyFinger
@Tipu7 @AZADPAKISTAN2009
@BondedByBlood @Ghazwa e Hind
@A-Team @The Sandman @Baloch Pakistani
@vostok @Muhammad Omar @django @TaimiKhan
@Windjammer @Zibago @ghazi52 @Mrc
@Vapnope @544_delta @Army research @Kaptaan @PaklovesTurkiye
and others
On 13th July 1985, Major Iftikhar TJ, was flying in the circuit of Qasim Base, when he got a call to make full stop landing and immediately report to base commander. He was told that two MI-8 helicopters of Afghan Air
Force had landed at Miran Shah. After some time Major Iftikhar alongwith Major Khalid Nawaz, Major Tariq Choudhry, and Captain Shahnawaz Badr landed at Miranshah Air Field in a UH-1H helicopter. The two helicopters were camouflaged under 'Saroots'. When these were removed, Pakistani pilots were completely surprised. They had never seen these helicopters before.
They were not the MI-8s but the renowned MI-24, fully loaded with rockets, missiles and guns.
There were Afghan pilots as well on board. Local commanders wanted these helicopters to leave quickly, due to threat Russian air attack.
Major Iftikhar narrates;
"The scary part was the tandem seat arrangements the good point was that cyclic, rudder, pedals and flying instruments were similar to MI-8. We could not trust the Afghan pilots and neither we had the time to undergo any kind of conversion on these MI-24s. I thus decided to fly them".
Meanwhile Major Tariq got one MI-24 started by the Afghan pilot, and then taxied for some time and later
hovered it, before switching it off. He announced that he was ready to fly.
One Combat Air Patrol (CAP) of PAF Mirages was scrambled from Mianwali Air Base to provide cover to these helicopters.
In One MI-24 tail No.28 the crew consisted of Major Iftikhar and Major Khalid Nawaz and the other helicopter tail No. 12 had Major Tariq and Captain Badr.
Afghan pilots were told to sit in the cargo compartment but they refused when they saw Pakistani pilots getting ready to fly these machines without any conversion, they were made to sit on gun point. Major Iftikhar further narrates; "Cyclic had lot of buttons, I was unaware of any of them thus I flew without any trimmers, we were maintaining 1 000 feet above ground level. After take off a strange female voice came on the radio transmission. I asked Major Tariq about this and he also confirmed this. We thought that Russians were searching us (Russian female voice in fact is a recorder which announces certain checks and procedures). After 25 minutes of flying, I got a call from Major Tariq that fuel is dripping in his cockpit and rest of the engine instruments are in green limits. There was no landing site available. We kept on flying on five minutes basis, thus we flew one hour before we came out of mountain ranges, we were left of Kalabagh. We landed across the River Indus in an open field. Major Tariq's cock-pit had half inch of fuel inside. We left that helicopter there and took off in the other helicopter (024) for Mianwali, which was another 30 minutes flying".
Major Tariq flying the other MI-24 narrates
'I was flying it like a MI-8, 1 kept the gauges especially the RPM within green limit, The Mirages were over head, around mid-way the Afghan Pilot announced on inter communication about "Benzi" dripping, I did not pay any heed, after some time the Afghan Pilot got panicked and announced "Benzi Boom, Boom". On a suitable site I landed"
Next day Afghan engineers, pilots and Major Tariq Choudhry went to the forced landed helicopter
(Guard was placed there )and brought it to Mianwali. Same day these two MI-24s landed at Dhamial after one hour and ten minutes of flying. There was a big reception waiting for them.
It was a historic event.
First time that MI-24 had landed in a non communist country.
Most importantly the Pakistan Army Aviation pilots have shown their prowess to the World. They had successfully flown these state of the art helicopters without any conversion or training, just relying upon their instincts.
All the four pilots belonged to the 4 Squadron. These two helicopters were locked in a hangar.
On 17th July 1985, President General Zia visited the hangar. There was a stream of visitors, American, British and Chinese even Russian Ambassador requested to see the new machines. Later Americans helped in unloading the rounds from the gun and accidentally one round was fired. Next flight of these defected helicopters took place on 19 th August 1985, when Major Iftikhar and Major Khalid flew them for thirty minutes. Check -list of these helicopters was made with the help of defected pilots.
On 7th November 1985, one MI-24 was successfully flown to Chaklala despite suffering hydraulic emergency by Colonel Razzaq and Major Iftikhar with Colonel Yousaf as flight engineer. This helicopter was later flown out in a Galaxy. Other MI-24 on 18 th January 1986 was flown by Major Tariq Choudhry to Murid Base.This helicopter remained there for another seven years before its next flight.
Two More Mi-24 HIND Land at Chitral
On 4th October 1987 another pair of MI-24 (tail no. 63 and 64)landed at Zivergul near Chitral.
This pair was on a routine hunting mission of Mujaheedin and lost its way. This pair belonged to the Spetsnatz unit of the Russian Army and crew was also Russian.
They after landing as per their drill waited for the rescue and when it was late they started destroying the helicopters. One shepherd was watching all this.He walked many miles and told the Frontier Constablury(FC) about these helicopters, who reached the spot.
Russians initially offered combat to the FC but soon raised white flag.
Qasim Base was tasked to retrieve these helicopters. Team headed by Colonel Razzaq visited the site in a Puma helicopter. Initial plan envisaged the sling lift of the MI-24. However due to height and load factor it was disregarded. On 7th October 1987, a ground team reached there.
Pakistan Television made a movie of this, which was shown all over the world same night.
Major Malang Bukhari was the ground team member and flight engineer of MI-8 with almost two decades of experience.
He narrates "It was extremely cold at night, there was a constant danger of Russians rescue team as well. At times Russian jets and MI-24 were seen prowling in their own area. We started looking at the helicopter and realized that it would be unwise to start it. Russians had already fired many rounds in the cockpit and secondly one could not over-rule the possibility of some explosive devices for self destruction.
We started dismantling the helicopters, so they could be slung with a Puma.
The location of forced landing was such that Puma could not hover there, moreover the threat of flying Russian MI-24s dictated that fuselage should be taken by ground to a safe place.
On 14th October 1987 a British team also arrived for assistance. This operation lasted till 21 st December
1987 when all parts were removed from the site. All this was done in freezing cold.
MI-24 flown to Multan
After a lapse of seven years Lieutenant Colonel Zafar Iqbal and Captain Mumtaz Zia flew MI-24 for thirty minutes on 29th January 1993.
Lieutenant Colonel Mumtaz recalls;
'This MI-24 was parked in an isolated corner of the base,one tyre was flat, there were honey combs made in the undercarriage, nests in the engine exhaust, and all types of reptiles were seen crawling in and out. We cleaned it with the help of water bowzer. On the third day we put on the battery, flight engineer was Subedar Major Mir. The moment we switched on the circuit breakers, the 70 Kilogram blister canopy flew off twenty yards away, we switched off the helicopter.
With the help of National Institute of Modern Language(NIML) we got the manual translated and then meticulously disarmed all the circuits of the MI-24.
On 30th January 1993, we hovered it for 30 minutes and on 1st February we flew it in circuit for one hour and ten minutes.
On 4th February 1993 we got airborne from Murid for Multan, after 30 minutes we landed at Sargodha, where F-16 pilots were curious to have a look at it. unfortunately ten minutes short of Multan, smoke started coming out of cockpit due to some short circuit and we made a precautionary landing. After rectification of the fault we landed at Multan".
Interlude at Multan
For next four years it remained parked in a hangar at Multan on the inventory of No.4 Squadron.
Lieutenant Colonel Suhail Ekram narrates;
"When I saw the MI-24, it gave a real pathetic look, it seemed to be just a piece of junk, due to non maintenance, birds had made nests in its cowlings and it was full of dirt. It was standing tilted with one tire removed, rim and the wheel drum were also missing. After a week's effort it was located in a shop at 503 Workshop at Rawalpindi. Lieutenant Colonel Zulfiqar, then incharge of the Anti Narcotics Force was requested to allow his spare auxiliary unit to be used for our MI-24. That left only one problem and that was, main wheel tyre.
My operation officer Major Daud accidentally bought the tyre from Quetta market for 700 Rupees (14 US Dollars)
First a general maintenance team of all trades under Havildar Javed cleaned the helicopter and installed the new auxiliary starting unit and the acquired tire. In a few days the technicians had checked all systems relating to their own trades, found every system serviceable and in working condition. Crew later deciphered all switches and instruments.
The next week was spent in ground testing the helicopter for two hours and then air tested the helicopter for ten hours. The helicopter flew like a dream come true although I did not dare retract the wheels. I then requested permission to fly this helicopter to Quetta, a flying of more than four hours was involved. After
a lot of deliberation at every level we were permitted and we (Lieutenant Colonel Suhail and Captain Basit Durrani) flew the helicopter to Quetta safely.
TEXT is Copied from:
History of Pakistan Army Aviation 1947-2007
written by: Aamir Cheema, Muhammad Azam, Mushtaq Madni
@Ulla
@war&peace @Umair Nawaz
@HAKIKAT @ACE OF THE AIR
@LadyFinger
@Tipu7 @AZADPAKISTAN2009
@BondedByBlood @Ghazwa e Hind
@A-Team @The Sandman @Baloch Pakistani
@vostok @Muhammad Omar @django @TaimiKhan
@Windjammer @Zibago @ghazi52 @Mrc
@Vapnope @544_delta @Army research @Kaptaan @PaklovesTurkiye
and others
Last edited:
Including the four given by India.
