A Pakistan Army aircraft on Monday crashed near Gujrat during a routine training mission, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) reported.
According to the military’s media wing, an instructor pilot, Major Umer, and his student Lieutenant Faizan were martyred in the crash.
“Major Umer, a resident of Gujrat, and Lieutenant Fiazan, a resident of Kalar Kahar, Chakwal, embraced shahadat,” the ISPR statement said.
Major Umer is survived by a wife, the statement added.
The ill-fated aircraft was a PAC MFI-17 Mushaq — a license-built fixed-gear basic trainer aircraft used by the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Air Force (PAF). An improved version of the Saab Safari, the MFI-17 is manufactured in Kamra by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.
Earlier this year, a PAF F-16 aircraft had crashed near Shakarparian in Islamabad during rehearsals for the Pakistan Day Parade. Wing Commander Nauman Akram was martyred in the crash.
Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had paid tribute to the martyr and said, “Laying one’s life is the ultimate sacrifice one can make for defence of the motherland. May his soul rest in peace. My thoughts and sincere prayers for the bereaved family.”
In April, a PAF aircraft crashed while on a routine operational training mission near Mianwali.
Both pilots, Squadron Leader Haris bin Khalid and Flying Officer Ibaadur Rehman, aboard the PAF FT-7 aircraft had lost their lives in the crash.
A board of inquiry had been ordered by the Air Headquarters to determine the cause of the accident that had followed the last trainer plane crash in October 2019 when a Mushaq trainer aircraft belonging to the Army Aviation crash-landed in a paddy field near Wazirabad in Gujranwala district. Both pilots aboard the plane had remained safe.
