YEREVAN, APRIL 16, ARMENPRESS. The Defense Ministry of Armenia released the documents of the downed Azerbaijani helicopter’s crew, which proves that Azerbaijan planned large-scale military operations in advance.

As “Armenpress” reports, head of the Aviation department of the Ministry Avetik Muradyan informed, that the downed Azerbaijani “MI 24 G” helicopter is the modernized version of the Russian “MI 24”. It has been modernized in the South African Republic and in Ukraine. This gunship is equipped with antitank missiles as well as up to 80 unguided aviation missiles.

By presenting the helicopter crew’s documents, Avetik Muradyan informed that a notebook has been found among one of the pilots. Information about the flights from March 31 is written in the notebook.

According to the documents, the pilot had to fly the helicopter from the Kala airport near Baku to Kyordani military airbase. There, the preparation for the further flight began. It was scheduled to make a flight to Zhdanovsk. According to Muradyan, this means that the pilot had received instructions about the military flights 1- 2 days in advance.

“The frontline and 9 targets in Nagorno Karabakh were highlighted in the pilot’s map. Depth from frontline is noted as 3-10km. The farthest point is noted as southeast Fizuli. As a pilot I can say that this target had to be done consecutively. The army aviation was planned to complete the instructions.  The pilots cooperated with aviation targeting units”, Muradyan said.

According to him, the adversary ordered the army aviation to prepare for attack operations for the night of April 1-2.

 “This is a proof, which any military expert will accept as reality. This proves that the adversary planned in advance its operations, instructed the pilots in advance and received precise targets”, he said.

Avetik Muradyan said that they processed the black boxes of the helicopter, the pilot operated the gunship in a very tense condition, as a result of which he didn’t fire the guided antitank missiles. Instead, he only used the cannon, the range of which is up to 1 km.  The pilot pressed the trigger for 2 minutes, and was downed in that position.

“All of this proves that the adversary planned large-scale military operations, otherwise Air Force wouldn’t be involved. The adversary’s actions were classically planned. We need the whole world to know this”, Press Secretary of the Ministry of Defense Artsrun Hovhannisyan said.

Regarding the second downed Azerbaijani helicopter, Hovhannisyan said that it was a MI 8 helicopter, which had to deploy paratroopers or conduct extraction. It was hit in Nagorno Karabakh’s airspace, but was able to continue its flight and land in Azerbaijan. According to Hovhannisyan, it is possible that the helicopter exploded while going down.

Photos by Eduard Sepetchyan