On 10 Feb 2010, 2-3 AH-1F Cobra helos were providing top cover to ground forces in Aurakzai Agency, during the fight one Cobra was hit by enemy fire and crashed. Two brave pilots Maj Mudassir and Capt Asim of Army Aviation Combat Group embarrassed Shahadat while serving for their motherland. Many reasons were cited for the crash, but one most probabble (and also mentioned in the video) is that pilots getting their helo too low from the prescribed height, i.e. 3000 - 3500 ft AGL. What was more tragic that immediately, after the crash a botched rescue attempt was launched to get to the crash site. 2 Bell 412s were immediately sent to the crash site. with brigade commander on board one of the helo. By that time, terrorists had set up an ambush at the crash site, because they knew that there will be a rescue attempt. The 2 Bell 412 dropped limited force at the crash site 7-8 soldiers including 2 officers (one of them Brigadier), the rescue party was seriously outnumbered and immediately came under heavy enemy fire. In the ensuing battle, the Brigadier also embraced Shahadat, and rescue party was pulled out under heavy fire from the crash site. The bringing down of Cobra has generated a lot of discussion as what actually bring down the bird. Talibans are known to operate 12.7 mm, 14.5 mm guns along with RPG-7. If a chopper gets too low, it may be easilly attacked by skillful siting of the weapon and equally competent gunner.
