On January 28, 1992,

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

transport helicopter A military transport aircraft, military cargo aircraft or airlifter is a military-owned transport aircraft used to support military operations by airlifting troops and military equipment. Transport aircraft are crucial to maintaining supply l ...

Mil Mi-8 was shot down near the town of

Shusha / hy, Շուշի , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = ShushaCollection2021.jpg , image_caption = Landmarks of Shusha, from top left:Ghazanchetsots Cathedral • Yukhari Govha ...

by a

heat-seeking missile Infrared homing is a passive weapon guidance system which uses the infrared (IR) light emission from a target to track and follow it seamlessly. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers" since infrared is radi ...

fired by Armenian separatist forces. The 1993 report by U.S.

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

on aviation security called it the "most significant incident" involving

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...

Central Eurasia Inner Asia refers to the northern and landlocked regions spanning North, Central and East Asia. It includes parts of western and northeast China, as well as southern Siberia. The area overlaps with some definitions of 'Central Asia', mostly the ...

Background

Serious air warfare during the Nagorno-Karabakh War broke out in January 1992. Azeri aircraft became easy targets for

Armenian armed forces The Armed Forces of Armenia ( hy, Հայաստանի զինված ուժեր, Hayastani zinvats uzher), sometimes referred to as the Armenian Army ( hy, Հայկական Բանակ, Haykakan Banak), is the national military of Armenia. It consist ...

. On January 9, the Armenians first claimed to have shot down an Azeri helicopter. More claims followed on January 24, 28 and 31 – all of them over

Nagorno-Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is m ...

, the last being a Mi-8 downed from

MANPAD Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS or MPADS) are portable surface-to-air missiles. They are guided weapons and are a threat to low-flying aircraft, especially helicopters. Overview MANPADS were developed in the 1950s to provide military g ...

s over the village of Huha. On January 31, the Azeris claimed the downings of two Mi-8s that supported the first Armenian offensive.

Shootdown

The Mi-8 helicopter transported 44 persons aboard (41 passengers, all civilians, and 3 crew) when it departed the town of Aghdam for Shusha, which was blockaded by Armenians. The craft was downed en route by a surface-to-air missile. All aboard were killed. According to Azeri journalist Kerim Kerimli, who assisted in collecting bodies at the site and confirmed the number of fatalities, the missile was launched from Stepanakert. Armenian officials stated that the helicopter was carrying weapons and ammunition to Azeris attacking Armenian villages.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azerbaijani Mil Mi-8 shootdown, 1992 Accidents and incidents involving the Mil Mi-8 1992 in Azerbaijan First Nagorno-Karabakh War Aviation accidents and incidents in Azerbaijan 20th-century aircraft shootdown incidents Aviation accidents and incidents in 1992 January 1992 events in Asia

Background

Shootdown

See also

References