Pakistan Air Force training jet crashes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing two pilots
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Pakistan Air Force training jet crashes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, killing two pilots")
A Pakistani fighter jet F-16 flies over Karachi Photograph: (AFP)
A Pakistan Air Force training aircraft crashed in Mardan, killing two pilots. Three civilians were also injured in the incident.
A Pakistan Air Force training aircraft crashed in northwestern Pakistan on Monday (Jun 15). Two pilots were killed in the incident, and three civilians were injured. Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi confirmed the accident, which happened in the Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The incident comes weeks after another PAF training jet crashed in eastern Punjab province.
The deceased pilots have been identified as Flight Lt. Muhammad Qasim Abdullah and Pakistan Navy’s Lt. Taha Abbasi.
“A board of inquiry has been constituted by Air Headquarters to ascertain the cause of accident,” the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said in a statement.
The statement added that Chief of Defense Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, services chiefs and all ranks within Pakistan Armed Forces expressed their grief over the loss of lives in the incident.
Aircraft crashes during training missions are common in Pakistan. In most cases the authorities do not release details of military training crashes and the investigation reports are not made public.
Earlier on May 20, another PAF fighter jet crashed in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province. The aircraft, believed to be a Hongdu JL-8 training jet, went down near Mianwali. According to initial reports, the two pilots managed to safely eject. Videos and images claiming to be from the incident emerged on social media, showing the wreckage of the crash.
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According to a Xinhua report, citing security sources, the aircraft crashed during a routine operational training mission in Mianwali district of the province. It added that the incident happened due to a technical malfunction in the aircraft’s engine.
The recent crashes have once again drawn attention to repeated incidents involving Pakistan’s training aircraft and ageing fighter fleet. In January 2020, an FT-7 training jet crashed during a routine mission near the same Mianwali base, killing both pilots. Reports then noted that at least 14 FT-7 aircraft and related variants had crashed over the previous 18 years.
