Pakistan's Mirage Fighter Jet Crashes During Training Mission

Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) Mirage jet crashed during its training mission at Athara Hazari in Punjab province Tuesday .

The pilot safely ejected from the aircraft. "Reason for the crash could not be confirmed yet," PAF spokesperson was quoted as saying by various local media.

Pakistan’s armed forces have had several air accidents in the past 18 months, including a crash that killed female jet pilot in another training exercise in November.

On April 15, a Mushshak training aircraft crashed in a village of Dina, near Jhelum due to technical glitch. The aircraft, which took off from Mangla Airbase for training exercise, got crashed in Haral Village. In the incident, however, both pilots Colonel Fazl-ur-Rehman and Captain Affan were safe.

In October last year, a PAF pilot was killed following crash of his Mirage jet near Karachi’s Musharraf Colony.

On September 24, 2016, Flight Lieutenant Amer Shazad was killed when his F-7 aircraft that flew down near the town of Jamrud, near the entrance to the Khyber Pass.

Similarly during November 2015, Marium Maukhtiar, one of Pakistan’s few female fighter jet pilots died in a training crash.

Pakistan has plans to replace all Mirage fighter jets that are in the service with JF-17s by 2025. Currently, the country has 82 Dassault mirage-5 and 75 Mirage III fighter jets in the service.