إنَّا لِلَّهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
Let's hope the investigation finds out the root cause and it is mitigated for future ops.
In such air assault missions, especially in mountainous terrain such as found in the locality but even in flat plains, and at night time, CFIT is a real danger.
On another note, might this have to do anything with the case of the kidnapping of the Colonel and his relative a month or so back? Perhaps a tip off about the same terrorists or hostages? That was in the same area too if I am not mistaken.
@Signalian , a great loss. But looks like PA is learning. Using Air assault for QRF
PA has been using this, at least in Balochistan and FATA, since a good few years now...no? Actually even more than that if my memory serves me right.
Mi-17's were also used for the purpose briefly, but then this role was delegated exclusively to 412 and Mi-35.