EL PAO -- A Venezuelan Army Mi-35M combat helicopter crashed Feb. 6 during the execution of a large-scale combat drill being conducted by the Venezuelan Armed Services amidst the country’s deepening political and economic crisis.
According to local reporting, five crew members were injured during the crash and the Mi-35M was sufficiently damaged as to be unsalvageable and requiring a write-off. The Venezuelan Military cited technical failures as the cause of the accident. Opposition leaders have previously made public statements critical of the sitting Government's large-scale acquisitions of Russian military hardware, alleging poor quality and technical shortfalls.
The exercises in which the Mi-35M taking part part were being conducted near the town of El Pao, and were part of a larger series of ongoing readiness drills called for by the embattled Venezuelan Government of Nicolas Maduro in response to National Assembly head and opposition leader Juan Guaido’s self-declaration as the country’s interim president and the perceived danger of outside intervention by the United States or Latin American regional powers.
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