Since the thread '
SHUHADA of PAKISTAN NAVAL AVIATION' has been closed. I have opened this thread.
Here is the story according to:
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/Atlantique_incident).
It is not my opinion, I am simply quoting it for the members to read about how the end game was played out. Since I had difficulty in pasting the contents suggest referring to the link if the text appears incoherent.
Quote
The
Atlantique Incident was an event in which a
Pakistan Navy's
Naval Air Arm Breguet Atlantique patrol plane, carrying 16 people on board, was shot down by the
Indian Air Force for alleged violation of airspace. The episode took place in Rann of
Kutch on 10 August 1999, just a month after the
Kargil War, creating a tense atmosphere between India and Pakistan.
Foreign diplomats based in Pakistan and escorted to the site by the Pakistani Army noted that the plane may have crossed the border. However, the Islamabad based diplomats said that they also believe that India's reaction was unjustified. Pakistan later lodged a compensation claim at the International Court of Justice, accusing India for the incident, but the court dismissed the case, ruling that the court had no jurisdiction in this matter.
Confrontation
The French-built naval plane
Breguet Atlantique (Breguet Br.1150 Atlantique) plane, flight
Atlantic-91, c/n 33, of 29 Squadron was one of Pakistan Navy's frontline aircraft, used primarily for
patrol and
reconnaissance. Atlantic-91 left
Mehran (Sindh province) Naval base at 9:15 am.
Indian Air Force ground radar picked up the flight path of the plane approaching the International Border.Two IAF
MiG-21 interceptor aircraft of No.45
Squadron, from the Indian
airbase at Naliya in the Kutch region, were soon scrambled by the Indian Air Force. After a series of manoeuvres—and a conflicting version of events from both sides—the two jets were given clearance to shoot down the Pakistani plane. At 11:17 am IST (10:47 am PST), nearly two hours after takeoff from Pakistan, the Atlantique was intercepted and an
infrared homing R-60 air-to-air missile was fired at it by
Squadron Leader P.K. Bundela, hitting the engine on the port side of the plane. This resulted in the aircraft losing control and spiraling towards a crash at approximately 1100 hours PST and approximate location
23°54′N 68°16′E / 23.9°N 68.267°E, killing all 16 on board the Atlantic-91, including five
officers of the Pakistan Navy.
Claims and counterclaims
The region in Kutch, (marked in red) where the incident took place
The event immediately sparked claims and counter-claims by both nations. Pakistan claimed that the plane was unarmed and the and there was no violation of Indian airspace. the
debris was found on Pakistan's side of the border. According to the official Pakistan version of events, the plane was on routine training mission inside Pakistan air space. The Pakistani prime minister stated during the funeral service of the airmen that the shooting was a barbaric act.
Enlarged map of the region showing Sir Creek and Kori Creek area where the plane was shot down and wreckage was found
The Indian Air force, however, claimed that the aeroplane did not respond to international protocol and that the plane acted in a "hostile" manner, adding that the debris of a downed aircraft could fall over a wide radius. Indian sources also state that
Pakistani
Information Minister, Mushahid Hussein, was initially quoted saying that the aircraft was on a surveillance mission. India also accused that the plane violated 1991 agreement where no
military aircraft is supposed to come anywhere near 10 km from the border (although Pakistan claimed the Atlantique wasn't a combat aircraft). Indian experts also questioned why a training mission was being done so close to the international border since all air forces clearly demarcate training areas for flight, which are located well away from the borders.
According to them, the Pakistani claim was untenable since the primary role of the Atlantique is for operations over the sea and that to carry out a training flight over land deep inside foreign territory was an indication of its use in a surveillance role. India displayed part of the wreckage of the Pakistani naval aircraft at New Delhi airport the next day. Pakistan however, stated that the wreckage was removed from its side of the border by Indian helicopters.
While Pakistan said that the plane was unarmed and the debris was within Pakistani territory, India maintained that warnings had been given to the Atlantique and that its flight trajectory meant it could have fallen on either side of the border. According to the Indian version of events, the MiGs tried to escort it to a nearby Indian base, when the Pakistani aircraft turned abruptly and tried to make a dash for the border; it was only then that it was fired upon. India claimed that the debris was found in a radius of 2 km on either side of the border and that the intrusion took place 10 km inside the Kori Creek, which is Indian territory. Pakistan requested that the matter be taken up in the UN. Indian officials blamed that there had been previous violations in the area and pointed out that in the previous year a Pakistani
unmanned surveillance aircraft had intruded 150 km inside the Indian border, coming close to the Bhuj air base before the IAF spotted it and brought it down with several missiles.
Indian analysts state "flare-ups" in the Rann of Kutch region were routine, and despite bilateral agreements, both Indian and Pakistan had conducted air intrusions in the past. Thus, the fact that the Atlantique was shot down, despite coming close to the Indian border, came as a surprise.
Indian officials add that Pakistan military aircraft had violated Indian airspace at least 50 times since January 1999, showing videotapes of Pakistani Atlantique buzzing or flying provocatively near the
Indian Navy's
warships in the Indian Ocean. Some Indian analysts stated that the Atlantique was nearly destroyed in 1983 on a similar encounter and noted other close encounters and violations from Pakistani naval planes
Some experts stated that the Atlantique was probably conducting a "probe" on India's
air defence system, mainly the
radar equipment in the border area; however, they advised that it was not part of any planned aggressive military action by Pakistan. Foreign diplomats who visited the crash site noted that the plane "may have strayed into restricted space", and that Islamabad was unable to explain why it was flying so close to the border; they however added that India's reaction to the incident was not justified. Many countries, the
permanent members of the UN Security Council, as well as the western media questioned the wisdom behind Pakistan's decision to fly military aircraft so close to the Indian border.
Rise in tensions
On the day following the attack, an IAF helicopter carrying journalists to the site of the attack was attacked by the Pakistan Army with a surface-to-air missile. Pakistani officials asserted that two Indian jets had intruded into Pakistani airspace near the Atlantique wreckage site, along the border between the Indian state of Gujarat and Pakistan's Sindh Province, and were then fired upon by Pakistan. International and Indian television journalists travelling in the chopper said the aircraft shook severely and a flash appeared in the air, suggesting a missile had been fired at it. The IAF thus aborted their mission to display Atlantique wreckage on Indian soil.
Following this, and the rising tensions in the area coupled by the fact that the Sir Creek was a disputed territory, both the countries' militaries near the Rann of Kutch and nearby were put on high alert. Pakistan sent a company of soldiers, equipped with both infrared homing shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, to the site near the border. Coming barely weeks after the Kargil Conflict where both nuclear armed countries fought
LawsuitEdit
The International Court of Justice dismissed Pakistan's case on the grounds that the court did not have jurisdiction.
On 21 September 1999, Pakistan lodged a compensation claim at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, accusing India of shooting down an unarmed aircraft. Pakistan sought about US$60 million in reparations from India and compensation for the victims' families. India's attorney general, citing an exemption it filed in 1974 to exclude disputes between India and other Commonwealth States, and disputes covered by multi-lateral treaties. In the buildup to the case, India also contended that Pakistan had violated the 1991 bilateral agreement between Pakistan and India on air violations, which states: "Combat aircraft (including, Bombers, Reconnaissance aircraft, Jet military trainers and Armed helicopters) will not fly within 10 km of each other’s airspace including Air Defense Identification Zone."
On 21 June 2000, the 16-judge Bench headed by Gilbert Guillaume of France ruled—with a 14–2 verdict—upholding India's submission that the court had no jurisdiction in this matter. Pakistan's claims were dropped, without recourse to appeal, and the outcome was seen as a decision highly favourable.
Aftermath
The next day, Pakistan fired missiles on one of the three helicopters carrying journalists into the region. Pakistan said that it fired on Indian fighter jets that were escorting the helicopters and had come inside Pakistani territory.
In India, the incident made the two MiG-21s into instant heroes. On 8 October 2000, the prestigious Squadron Leader P.K. Bundela. The medal was also awarded to Wing Commander V.S. Sharma
The downing of the Pakistani aircraft came at a particularly bad juncture for the Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was already under attack from politicians for ordering a withdrawal of its troops from Kargil. Two months later he was deposed in a bloodless coup d'état by Gen. Pervez Musharraf.
Unquote.