Fighter jet crashes in Balochistan, no casualties
The French-built Mirage jet took off from the Pakistan Air Force's Masroor Base in Arabian Sea port city of Karachi and crashed near the town of Uthal in Balochistan, air force spokesman Squadron Leader Mohammad Nadeem told AFP.
Uthal is around 60 kilometres west of Karachi.
"The pilot ejected successfully and safely," the spokesman said, adding the cause of the accident would be determined after an investigation.
No loss of civilian life or property was reported on ground, he said.
It was the second Mirage aircraft crash in the region in a month. A Mirage-V crashed on May 11 while its pilot ejected safely as well.
The Pakistan Air Force has a fleet of Chinese aircraft including F-7PGs and A-5s, plus US-built F-16s and French Mirages. It recently acquired JF-17s Thunder jets, manufactured jointly by China and Pakistan.
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strong text 1st great thanks to pilot who crashed the jet fighter and successfully saved his life.May Allah help our air force that dare to protect our border and always our eastern and west border intercepted by enemy and our great airforce claims if Governament order us, we will shoutdown the enemy jet fighter and i pray that our Airforce be wakeup and serve the borders
There had been so many crashes, off lately, in PAF. Does anyone know of any investigations and their findings ? My first impression is that PAF had too many old air crafts
@Adnan: "finest airforce in the world"!!! Please tell us where you found a ranking that listed PAF as such?
@abdul Rehman nope many luftwaffe pilots landed thir planes vidout cockpits, n even gears having a belly land.
flying aces like Erich Hartmann vid 350+ kills. adolf galand. Heinz Knock.
n nt to mention Hans Ulrich Rudle who ws a stuka dive bomber pilot flew from russia to germany being shot and wounded. n managed to land. and he had only ONE LEG.
lets nt 4gt the Red baron who landed his plane even after being dead.
so dun give PAF all the credit read history of other air force 1st then say.
Aircraft ws built by a gora so dey knw it much better than we do. datz y v crash.
@Omar: Mirage is a French aircraft.
@abdul rehman: @Anil: Good on you guys for upholding the reputation of the PAF- the finest airforce in the world!
@Omar: It was a FRENCH built plane. These planes are 50 years old. Incidents like these are bound to happen. Get your facts straight before blabbering
@Vigilant: SOP for this aircraft is that we took ALL the grounded Mirages from around the world (Australia, ME etc) and scrapped them for components! This is the state in which these Aircrafts are being operated, because the French have stopped producing the spare parts. Its only up to speedy induction of JF-17 to replace all these ageing Aircrafts, they have served Airforce well as Bombers but their time is up!
@abdul rehman:
Thank you Sir for stating the facts for a change, just last month Japanese Embassy gave Award to Airforce team involved in the rescue of their citizens form Northern Areas. There are lot of records that our Airforce has made, but it you give them Aircrafts which are being used beyond their indented life then this will happen.
@LionOfPunjab: How do you come up with this? How can you comment on the competence of the Airforce Personal. They have one of the highest flying hours in the world. The crashes have been mostly on Mirage, one JF-17 (which was going through trials), and no F-16 crashed in Pak, it was in Turkey. The crashes are due to OLD AIFCRAFTS. Check the age of the fleet, if you have bias towards Armed Forces then that's fine, but don't pretend to be an expert of on this matter.
@Muhammad "..Last 8 to 10 months PAF has experienced record losses of air crafts! Is this because of aging fleet or because or incompetent officers? This for sure needs to be investigated..."
I was thinking the same thing. We have managed to crash all kind of airplanes, chinese jf-17,f16, mirage and even some trainers! Crashes are not a model specific, This leads to only one conclusion.... its combination of poor maintenance, lack of training and/or good old incompetence. Our officers are more into the business and golf than they are in their core job.
@Omar: This shows how much you know about this matter, Firstly Mirage V is French not Chinese. Secondly its not a fault of Pilots or Engineers. These aircrafts were made in 70's, French have stopped supporting and producing these aircrafts therefore even spare parts are not available. These Airframes have completed their life and are not fit to be flown. The only reason its being flown is that we don't have any replacement (cant afford Western Aircrafts). If anything these Pilots knowingly fly Aircrafts which are now nicknamed "Widow Markers". So mate check you facts before posting a comment.
Last 8 to 10 months PAF has experienced record losses of air crafts! Is this because of aging fleet or because or incompetent officers? This for sure needs to be investigated.
@ Omar But that was a French aircraft. How did you bring the Chinese into it?
That pic is of a Mirage 2000! Please get the pics correct! Its like comparing a Datsun with a BMW!
We don't have the purchasing power to recover damaged fighter jets and you pilots keep crashing over and over again?, this is a great example of china useless technology.