On Wednesday morning, Six Air Force officers and a civilian were killed after an Indian Air Force (IAF) chopper crashed in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam. The crash took place in the conditions of heavy shelling and firing from across the border a day after IAF fighter jets crossed the Line of Control and destroyed a vast terror camp within Pakistan in a pre-dawn strike on Tuesday. Hours after the crash, India said that an Air Force pilot is "missing in action" after an Indian Air Force aircraft shot down a Pakistani jet which was targeting military installations in India. The statement from the foreign ministry came after Pakistan claimed ", strikes across Line of Control from within Pakistani airspace". Pakistan had also claimed that the MiG 21 pilot is in their custody.
A Pakistani F-16 aircraft crashed on its territory, in the Lam Valley area along the Line of Control. Airports close to the border with Pakistan including those of Amritsar, Jammu, Srinagar and Leh were shut temporarily. All airspace close to the border with Pakistan were also shut down.
Visuals shared by the sources showed the wrecked fuselage of the IAF chopper in flames and a large number of villagers standing around it. The helicopter which was a Russian made Mi-17, crashed in an open field near Garend Kalaan village in Budgam at around 10.05 am. The Mi-17 chopper broke into two and caught fire immediately, the officials said.
The area has been on high alert amid various attempts of retaliation by Pakistan, after the air strikes by India.