Mystery flights from Azerbaijan’s Dallar airbase most likely military helicopter training flights

Mystery flights from Azerbaijan’s Dallar airbase most likely military helicopter training flights, possibly Mi-8 gunships/transport or even Turkish T-129 gunships (recently seen in Azerbaijan during the “Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 2023” military drills.

Neither aircraft had registration numbers according to @flightradar24, but did have call signs (SMK701 and SMK702) and ICAO 24-bit addresses (176448 and 176438 respectively). No other information on aircraft type was available through online registry archives.

Previously, aircraft with call sign SMK701 (ICAO 176448) was spotted flying around the same airbase a month before the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war, although a direct connection with the conflict was unable to be established.

Among the three aircraft spotted parked outside the Dallar airbase hangers, Bayraktar TB2, Pakistani PAC MFI-17 Mushshak trainer aircraft and Mi-8 gunships/transport, only the latter meets the criteria of low airspeed during flights, reaching as low as 94 km/h.

 

 

 

 

Given the mentioned facts and more information available through open sources, we can now comfortably conclude that the aircraft under the call signs SMK701 and SMK702 (ICAO 176448 and 176438) were military helicopters housed in bunkers at Azerbaijan’s Dallar airbase.

 

It is worth noting that the airbase is located 30 km from Armenia’s border. Unconfirmed whether it has been used during the now numerous wars with its neighbour, however, the airbase was renovated for UAV use just prior to the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh war.