Fighter jet crashes in southern Pakistan, pilot safe

SONMIANI, PAKISTAN (BNO NEWS) — A fighter jet crashed near a coastal town in southern Pakistan on Friday afternoon, but the pilot was able to eject safely from his aircraft as it went down, air force officials said. The cause was not immediately known.

The Mirage-V aircraft had taken off from Base Masroor in Karachi for a routine training flight and crashed soon later near the coastal town of Sonmiani, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Karachi. “The pilot was able to eject safely from his aircraft and we will now investigate why it crashed,” a spokesman said.

There were no reports of damage or injuries on the ground.

In February, a pilot identified as Tauseef Ahmed was killed when a China-made F-7PG fighter jet crashed in a mountainous area about 24 nautical miles (44.4 kilometers) north of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan. The cause of the crash, which was the fourth of a Pakistani air force jet in as many months, was not immediately known.