The 1978 Iranian Chinook shootdown was an incident on 21 June 1978, when four
Boeing CH-47 Chinooks of the
Imperial Iranian Air Force
The history of the Iranian Air Force, currently known as the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, can be divided into two phases—before the Islamic Revolution, and after it.
Imperial era
The Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) was a branch ...
strayed into
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
airspace during a training mission, with the result being that two of them were shot down by the
PVO.
Shootdown
During the 1970s, numerous incidents, probably including
Project Dark Gene
Project Dark Gene was an aerial reconnaissance program run by the Central Intelligence Agency and Imperial Iranian Air Force from bases inside Iran against the Soviet Union. The program was run in conjunction with Project Ibex, which was a more tra ...
occurred on the Soviet-Iranian and Afghan-Iranian border, causing the Soviets to station a regiment of
MiG-23
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-23; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is a third-generati ...
s at
Ak-Tepe Air Base, near the border with
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
, in what was then the
Turkestan Military District
The Turkestan Military District (russian: Туркестанский военный округ (ТуркВО), ''Turkestansky voyenyi okrug (TurkVO)'') was a military district of both the Imperial Russian Army and the Soviet Armed Forces, with it ...
. One of the most serious of these occurred in the early morning of 21 June 1978, at 06:21 AM, when a Soviet radar site near the village of Bagir, not far from
Ashkabad
Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشقآباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lies ...
, detected four slow-moving contacts which came from
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and penetrated 15 to 20 kilometers into the Soviet airspace near
Dushak
Dushak ( tk, Duşak) is a small town in the Karakum Desert on the rim of the Kopet Dag mountains of Ahal Province, Turkmenistan.
See also
* Railway stations in Turkmenistan
Railway stations in Turkmenistan include:
Maps
UN MapUNHCR Map ...
, in
Turkmenistan
Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
.
Five minutes later, these targets were detected by the radar site of
Ak-Tepe Air Base, and the deputy commander of the 152nd IAP, Lt.Col. J. A. Miloslavsky, ordered one MiG-23M, flown by Capt. A. V. Dem'janov, to scramble. Once over the area, Dem'janov found only one helicopter, but misidentified it as a friendly
Mil Mi-6. In addition, he got a command from the command post, "not to turn weapons on and not to come too close to the target". Because Dem'janov's answers to calls from the
GCI station sounded uncertain, he was finally ordered back to
Ak-Tepe AB and instead, at 06:52 AM, Lt.Col. Miloslavsky dispatched another MiG-23M, flown by Capt. Valery I. Shkinder.
Shkinder approached four contacts, identified them properly as
Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters of the
Imperial Iranian Air Force
The history of the Iranian Air Force, currently known as the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force, can be divided into two phases—before the Islamic Revolution, and after it.
Imperial era
The Imperial Iranian Air Force (IIAF) was a branch ...
and got an order to attack. At the time, the Iranian Chinooks were flying in two pairs to the northwest along the
Qaraqum Canal, but when their crews detected the interceptor over them, they made a turn to the southwest and flew towards the
Kopet mountains and the Iranian border.
Diving behind the two rear Chinooks, Capt. Shkinder fired two
Molniya R-60 IR-homing air-to-air missiles. Both missiles found their mark and struck the rearmost helicopter, the wreckage of which crashed near the village of Gjaurs, killing all eight crew members. Capt. Shkinder informed his base of the destruction of the first target and got an order to attack the second helicopter. Turning around, he positioned his MiG-23M behind the damaged helicopter and opened fire with his
GSh-23L 23 mm gun, spending a total of 72 rounds in two passes and hitting the starboard engine of the CH-47C. The Iranian pilot was lucky enough to manage a landing near the Soviet border post at Gjaurs. All four crew members survived, but were subsequently captured by
Soviet border guards
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. The remaining two Chinooks escaped, crossing back into Iranian airspace.
Aftermath
Despite a severe loss of life for the IIAF, the incident was downplayed by both sides, and the Soviets subsequently permitted the damaged Chinook to be repaired by Iranians and flown back to Iran, together with all four crew members: Capt. Valery Shkinder was also not decorated for his feat; a proposal was made for him to get a Combat Red Flag Award, with the Kremlin rejecting the proposal "due to a very complex international situation". Ten years later in 1988 in a similar incident, two Soviet
MiG-23
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-23 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-23; NATO reporting name: Flogger) is a variable-geometry fighter aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau in the Soviet Union. It is a third-generati ...
s shot down a pair of Iranian
AH-1Js that had strayed into western Afghan airspace. The Soviets were occupying
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
at the time and were withdrawing. 15 years before this incident at least another shootdown had occurred in which an
Imperial Iranian Army Aviation (IIAA)
Aero Commander 560
The Aero Commander 500 family is a series of light-twin piston-engined and turboprop aircraft originally built by the Aero Design and Engineering Company in the late 1940s, renamed the Aero Commander company in 1950, and a division of Rockwell ...
had been shot down by a Soviet
MiG-17P.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iranian Chinook Shootdown, 1978
Iranian Chinook shootdown
1978 in Iran
Violations of Soviet airspace
Aviation accidents and incidents in the Soviet Union
20th-century aircraft shootdown incidents
Iran–Soviet Union relations
Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978
Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing Chinook
Mass murder in 1978
June 1978 events in Asia