MOSCOW — At least one bystander narrowly escaped death when a Russian military helicopter accidentally fired rockets into a parking lot during a training exercise, a video released on Tuesday shows. Two helicopters swooping over a field at treetop level before one suddenly fires off rockets that seem to hit a truck just a few yards from the bystander, who was standing on the parking lot, which is next to a firing range near St. Petersburg.The misfire came during a major exercise, called Zapad 2017, or West 2017, though the timing of the strike was unclear. The exercises began Thursday and run through Wednesday.
Intended to flex Russian military muscle along the border with NATO countries to the west of Russia, the exercises have also highlighted some safety lapses. Already one Russian soldier has died from a ricocheting tank shell.
The Russian military issued a strongly worded statement denying that the helicopter mishap occurred on Monday, when President Vladimir V. Putin visited the firing range. But it did not dispute the authenticity of the video.
“The targeting system on one helicopter mistakenly acquired a target,” the statement explained. “The strike by unguided rockets damaged a truck.”
“All reports on social media of salvos fired at a crowd of journalists and a large quantity of gravely injured people are intentional provocations, or somebody’s personal stupidity,” the statement said. It did not clarify whether anyone was wounded in the misfire.