English

State Border Committee denies rumors that Polish helicopter could be shot down

The Belarusian State Border Committee (SBC) has denied rumors that a Polish helicopter crashed in the Brest region after being shot down by a Belarusian military unit.

The Polish Border Guard (Straz Graniczna)’s helicopter crashed while making a routine border patrol on the evening of October 31, killing all three officers aboard. The wreckage of the helicopter was discovered the following morning some 200 yards from the Polish border near the village of Vysokaye in the Kamyanets district, Brest region.

The rumors, which have been circulating on Polish Internet forums and suggest that the incident could be a “provocation,” are groundless, SBC spokesman Alyaksandr Tsishchanka told BelaPAN.

Belarusian border control officers have neither the authority nor the weapons to engage such targets, while “there would have been nothing left of the aircraft” if it had been shot down by an anti-aircraft unit, the official stressed.

The Polish chopper did not explode and was not burning when it crashed, he noted.

Mr. Tsishchanka said that the Polish Border Guard had warned the Belarusian border service of the helicopter’s flight in advance and the aircraft had been on Belarusian radar screens before the crash.

Any possible airspace disputes involving a border guard aircraft are solved at meetings between representatives of the Belarusian and Polish border control services, he stressed.

Belarus and Poland have formed a joint commission to investigate the accident.