Pakistan: 2 dead in army aircraft crash

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Two pilots were killed as a Pakistani army aircraft crashed in the northeastern Punjab province on Monday morning.

The plane was on a training mission and crashed near Gujrat district, some 140 kilometers (88 miles) from the provincial capital Lahore, the military's media wing, Inter Services Public Relations, said in a statement.

Both pilots -- the instructor Major Umer and the student Lieutenant Faizan -- were killed in the crash, the army confirmed.

There was no immediate cause cited for the crash, which is the fourth this year involving planes of Pakistan’s armed forces, including two in a single week in February.

The last crash was on the outskirts of the capital Islamabad on March 11. The F-16 fighter jet went down while practicing maneuvers for a Pakistan Day airshow, killing the pilot, Wing Commander Nauman Akram.

On Feb. 12, a training aircraft came down near Takht Bhai, some 63 kilometers (39 miles) from Peshawar, the capital of the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The pilot managed to eject safely.

Just days earlier, on Feb. 7, a Mirage aircraft of the Pakistani Air Force, on a routine operational training mission, crashed near the town of Shorkot in Punjab.

The pilot ejected safely and no loss of life or property was reported on the ground.