Two Stories, Different Responses, Cool Headed Pakistan Wins Hearts

Top leadership of the Pakistani militarily forces kept their cool when Indian Army' Cheetah (SA 315B Lama)  helicopter violated the Pakistani airspace and crossed into Pakistani part of the Kashmir.

Indian Cheetah (SA 315B Lama) was tracked by the Pakistani airdefence network from cross the border and Pakistan Air Force scrambled F-7 fighter  jet for interception in case of airspace violation.

Once Indian helicopter crossed into the Pakistani territory, Pakistani fighter jet issued a warning to the Indian helicopter and ordered it to land in the Olding sector near the Line of Control (LoC). The Cheetah helicopter of India's Army Aviation Corps with four Indian Army officers on board landed inside Pakistan at at around 1320 hours.

Indian Cheetah helicopter was flying from Leh to Bhimbat in the Drass sector . Majors R G Raja and G Kapila, pilots of the Indian Army Aviation Corps were flying the Indian Army Aviation Corp’s 666 Siachen Falcons squadron helicopter which was carrying Lt-Colonel S P Verma, and a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) Subedar Akhilesh Sharma.

Cheetah helicopter belonged to the Indian Army Aviation Corp’s 666 Siachen Falcons squadron.

Indian helicopter crew informaed the Pakistani military investigators that their  helicopter had strayed inside Pakistani airspace due to the bad weather and no hostile intent was involved .

Indian helicopter was allowed to fly back to Indian occupied Kashmir at 1730 hours after it was refueled in Pakistan.

Indian director-general of military operations Lt-General A M Verma has said, "All is well. Our boys are back safe and sound with their chopper, which landed at Kargil just after 5.45 pm.''

Spokesperson of the Indian foreign ministry has said, "We are relieved that our officers and helicopter are back in India. We greatly appreciate the manner in which Pakistan worked with us in resolving the matter."

Indian media has reported that Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be meet Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in Maldives next month to express the gratitude.

Thanks to the cool handling of the incident by the Pakistani military leadership, this incident didn't turned into a major diplomatic and military stand-off between the two nuclear armed nations which has already fought three wars.

Pakistani response was completely opposite to what was displayed by the Indian air force in August 1999 when Indian fighter jets shot down a Pakistani navy's Atlantique aircraft which resulted in the death of all 16 sailors on board.

Pakistani unarmed, Atlantique aircraft was on a routine mission over the Arabian Sea near the southern coastal town of Badin when it was hit by missile fired by an Indian Mig-21 fighter jet.

Pictures released by the Pakistani military sources confirmed that Pakistani aircraft crashed well inside Pakistani territory and disproving the Indian statements that Pakistani aircraft violated their airspace and India had located the wreckage of the aircraft in the Kori Creek.