The helicopter went down in the Anninsky district of the Voronezh region, about 80 km from the city of Voronezh. According to the insider Telegram channel Dosye Shpiona, the incident occurred on October 1 during the repelling of a massed drone attack: the Su-35 crew mistakenly identified the helicopter as a UAV and opened fire on it.
Both Z-channels linked to Russian military aviation and Ukrainian sources report that the Mi-8 was shot down. The Telegram channel Fighterbomber, which is close to Russian military aviation, did not directly name the cause but wrote that it was "classic."
Another Z resource, Helicopterpilot, claims the helicopter was being "moved out from under the strike" — taken from its basing pad in the direction the enemy drones were flying. In its account, the destruction of the aircraft could have been caused by a failure of the friend-or-foe identification system or by the pilots' failure to follow the instructions of the flight director.
The crew consisted of three people: a pilot, a navigator and a gunner. All died. In Factum also reported the death of the crew; UNIAN said the helicopter was shot down by Russian military personnel.
On the evening of October 1 and during the night of October 2, the Voronezh region came under a massed drone attack. According to Governor Alexander Gusev, 62 UAVs were destroyed over two urban districts and six districts of the region.
This is not the first case of the loss of a Russian Mi-8 during the repelling of a drone attack. On the night of March 4, a military helicopter crashed in the khutor of Dudki in the Rostov region, about 2.5 km from the Millerovo airfield. According to Astra, the aircraft was shot down by Russian air defense forces and fell onto a local farmer's shed. All three crew members died, and civilians were not injured.
In total, Russia had more than 770 Mi-8s — the most numerous helicopter in the Russian forces, which is also used by the FSB border service, Rosgvardia and the Naval Aviation of the Navy.