Another Afghan helicopter crash

The Afghan Air Force (AAF) sadly lost two crew after again a piece of their hardware crashed. A Mi-17 crash-landed due to reported "technical problems" in Hisarak district in eastern Nangarhar province on 10 November 2020. Besides the two killed, two more crew were wounded as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in a statement.

The incident happened about noon when the helicopter was taking off in Hisarak. Further details are unknown. The Afghan Air Force still has about seventy Mi-8/-17s in its operational inventory, although it is expected that a smaller number is really operational.

On 13 October 2020, two AAF Mi-17V-5s were written off after they collided with each other in Helmand province (Afghanistan). That crash resulted in nine fatalities. On 24 September 2020, an MD530F crashed due to technical failure in northern Baghlan province, killing its two pilots. On 1 September 2020, a Mi-17V-5 crashed during its landing in Rustaq district, Takhar province (no fatalities).

Excluding these September crashes, the AAF faced seven other crashes during 2020, including a UH-60A, A-29B, Mi-17V-5, MD530F, Mi-35 and a civilian Mi-8 that flew on behalf of the AAF. The AAF is facing continuous problems in maintaining their inventory. Besides that, the operational commitments are very high in the ongoing war in the country. These two factors that often do not cooperate with each other.