On October 9, 2012, this helicopter had a hard landing and was damaged beyond repair whilst being operated for a mining company. Fortunately, none of the 29 persons on board perished. Some reports say the heli was owned by Nyaman Air and the aviation-safety.net website says the operator was Pecotox Air.

[Olympus PEN E-PL2 + M.Zuico 40-150mm]

This '88 built Mi-8 was delivered as 18 Orange to the Russian Army at Brandis, later on it was recoded to 12 Blue at Werneuchen, both in former East Germany. It was most probably moved to Chechnya were it was illegally sold after it suffered an accident in '93. The Afghan MiI possibly took over the Mi-8 and used it with the Afghan Special Narcotics Force (as this picture shows), but c/n is not confirmed. Probably 95059 was damaged beyond eco repair on 27 March '06 in a hard landing in the Spin Ghar district (Nangarhar province) after technical issues, all 9 crew and passengers escaped unhurt.

Several unmarked Mi-8s flew secretive missions over Afghanistan. The helicopters were parked on an isolated platform. Personnel nearby were often very cagey in their behaviour. But sometimes... the helicopters were parked alone, the moment for a picture taken from a passing car... The small HIP fleet was linked to the Blackwater, an American private military company.

Several unmarked Mi-8s flew secretive missions over Afghanistan. The helicopters were parked on an isolated platform. Personnel nearby were often very cagey in their behaviour. But sometimes... the helicopters were parked alone, the moment for a picture taken from a passing car... The small HIP fleet was linked to the Blackwater, an American private military company. See also here).

Several unmarked Mi-8s flew secretive missions over Afghanistan. The helicopters were parked on an isolated platform. Personnel nearby were often very cagey in their behaviour. But sometimes... the helicopters were parked only the lonely, the moment for a picture taken from a passing car... The small HIP fleet was linked to the Blackwater, an American private military company.

Several unmarked Mi-8s flew secretive missions over Afghanistan. The helicopters were parked on an isolated platform. Personnel nearby were often very cagey in their behaviour. But sometimes... the helicopters were parked only the lonely, the moment for a picture taken from a passing car... The small HIP fleet was linked to the Blackwater, an American private military company.

This '87 Mi-8 was delivered to the Russian Air Force as 82 yellow and operated from Chkalovski air base. The Mi-8 was most probably transferred to the Polish Air Force by late '03, early '04 in an all-grey c/s. The MT as reported with Polish 'szachownica', acquired for Special op in Afghanistan. It was then donated by the UK in all-grey c/s without titles after an overhaul by Helisota at Kaunas-Gamykla (Lithuania). It was first reported with the Afghan MoI by November 2004. By July 2012 it was reported as 311 with the Special Mission Wing. The construction number is still unconfirmed.

Written of when it crashed at a height of 1,313 metres into the western slope of Mount Khanmei on September 9, 2007.

This is possibly YA-TAE. The fully unmarked light grey helicopter flew missions in support of the Afghan Security Forces as well as the Afghan government, but I do not exclude it was also used by secretive US agencies, as this helicopter was often seen on that platform.

To the Azerbaijan Border Guard as "20154".