On Sept. 25, an Afghan air force MD-530F helicopter crewed by an Afghan student pilot and his American instructor touched down on a hilltop near Shindand air base, in western Afghanistan, as part of routine training.
An Improvised Explosive Device exploded, wrecking the copter and badly injuring the two crew. A U.S. airman coming to the rescue “faced a scene of broken bones, blood near the burning aircraft,” according to a U.S. Air Force report.
“The location of the IED on top of a hill, presumably away from any roads, suggests that the Taliban may have actually targeted the helicopter after having previously observed the Afghan air force using the location for pilot training,” Jane’snoted.
As strange as it is for a helicopter to be “shot down” by an IED on the ground, that’s not the only weird warplane kill in recent history. Among other strange shoot-downs since the mid-1980s, warplanes have destroyed other aircraft using laser-guided bombs or accidentally shot each other down during training events. Drones have been destroyed in a hopelessly lopsided dogfight and downed by a friendly plane after malfunctioning.
What follows is a partial list of the oddest aerial combat victories of the modern era.
An RF-4 struck by a surface-to-air missile over Vietnam. U.S. Air Force photo
