1994 British Army Lynx shootdown

At 20:27 on 20 March 1994, a Mark 15 mortar severed the tail boom of Lynx ZD275 while it hovered above the Crossmaglen helipad. The pilot dragged the crippled machine back inside the base, but the constable remained trapped in the blazing wreckage until rescued moments before the fuel and ammunition exploded. What began as a stand-off weapon became the most successful IRA helicopter kill of the Troubles, proving that even the sky belonged to the siege.