Investigation & evidence based reconstruction of the last fall of a Pakistan Air Force jet, shot down by an Indian Air Force MiG-21 in Azad Kashmir on 27 February 2019
Sameer Joshi
Aug 20 · 50 min read
Post the Indian Air Force strike on a JeM terrorist camp in Pakistan on the 26th of February 2019, followed by the high voltage aerial skirmish the next day between the rival airforces; the widespread din — created from manufactured lies, deceit and misinformation campaign by the Pakistan Army’s infamous Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) — to deny and cover up tactical shortcomings of the Pakistan Air Force and the shooting down of the PAF aircraft — has pro-actively blurred the truth.
The first casualty of War is always the Truth! Somewhere in between this subterfuge is a PAF pilot and an aircraft tail number — shot down in heady combat by an IAF MiG-21, before the MiG itself fell victim to an air-to-air missile fired by the PAF.
The Pakistani military establishment denies the F-16 shoot down vehemently — insisting that the only aircraft which crashed in Azad Kashmir that fateful day was an IAF MiG-21, the fall of which is well documented in multiple amateur video feeds — while craftily masking all the evidence of the PAF aircraft crash to serve the wider agenda of upholding the morale and invincibility of the Pakistan Air Force — the Pāk Fizāʾiyah.
While the OSINT evidence is available to sift through its worth — the first indication of a massive coverup by the Pakistani state was provided by none other than Major General Asif Ghafoor, the DG ISPR — who overwhelmed by the need to be ahead in the information war with India — inadvertently gave away the presence of the #"); background-size: 1px 1px; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px);">DoosraBanda within the hour post the aerial clash. However in today’s digital age — it is literally impossible to control & wipe away information traces in toto — especially on a day when hundreds of trigger happy residents in the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (Azad Kashmir) had their mobile phone cameras trained towards the skies, recording the massive presence of fighter jets and their ensuing melee.
A highly detailed study of more than 128 OSINT videos dreveals — though the Pakistan military was successfully able to impose a media and communication black down over the crash site of the PAF jet thus eliminating any proof of the debris on ground, as well as keeping the focus on the crash & capture of the Indian pilot; 3 videos — two filmed near the PAF jet crash site and one taken across the LoC from J&K — clearly record the last fall of a ‘second aircraft’ in the skies south of Kotli in Azad Kashmir — proof that the Indian Air Force had indeed shot down a PAF asset that day!
Prelude
At around 1020 hours on 27 Feb 19, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman of the Indian Air Force crossed into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (Azad Kashmir) abeam the Naoshera sector of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) while flying a MiG-21 Bison of the 51 Squadron. Abhinandan, callsign Alpha-1, who had been scrambled from Srinagar AFB — was in hot pursuit of Pakistan Air Force F-16s which as part of ‘Operation Swift Retort’ had violated the Line of Control (LoC) and launched AMRAAM missiles against IAF Su-30MKIs a few minutes back. Abhinandan, was cautioned by the IAF fighter controller at the IACCS node about a F-16 Barrier Combat Air Patrol (BARCAP) going HOT, turning around to face him — with Alpha formation advised to go COLD and return back across the LoC. While Alpha-2, Abhinandan’s №2 turned back, Abhinandan pressed on his quest to lock on to the marauding PAF jets. He had search mode indication of at least 2 x F-16s on his Kopyo radar at 30–35 km range on course 290 degree. Wanting to make sure that he did not have any targets closer than that, Abhinandan switched over to his close combat mode on the radar and swept the area ahead of him trying to get a radar assisted lock for the R-73. While climbing passing 20,000 feet, he got a lock on tone in one of his R-73s. This indicated that the missile head had locked onto an infra-red source within its gimbal limits. Basis a positive lock by the missile, Abhinandan fired the R-73 and turned around on a northerly course, before finally settling on an eastern heading towards the LoC.
A MiG-21 Bison of the IAF armed with the R-77 and R-73 missiles at an air show
About 45–50 seconds after his R-73 launch and about 7 km inside Azad Kashmir, the MiG-21 was hit by an AMRAAM fired by a PAF F-16.
Abhinandan ejected from the stricken aircraft and parachuted to safety, landing 4 km away from the LoC near Horan Kotla village in Azad Kashmir. He was brutally attacked by civilians, before being dramatically handed over to the Pakistan Army.
His ordeal made him a focal point of the developing crisis, when in gross violation of the Geneva convention, the footage of his battered face was intentionally released on Pakistani television and social media by Pakistan Army affiliates minutes later. What was clear was that the Pakistan Armed Forces had activated the now infamous Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) to get the narrative under control.
Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force basis the radar picture of the aerial engagement, as well as conformation from the Indian Army on visual sighting of two aircraft crashing in Azad Kashmir on separate radials; announced the shooting down of a Pakistan Air Force F-16. It also acknowledged the loss of one MiG-21 over Azad Kashmir.
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