MARDAN: Pakistan Air Force (PAF) in its statement shared a short while ago that a training plane on Wednesday made an emergency landing in the fields near Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Mardan town after facing issues mid-flight. Both pilots present in the plane, a Super Mushshak training aircraft survived the crash-landing.
The statement added that a board of inquiry would be constituted to investigate the incident.
The Super Mushshak aircraft is an advanced variant of the Mushshak basic trainer and basic flight training is provided on the aircraft for aspiring pilots.
In March 2022, two pilots lost their lives when their trainer aircraft crashed on the outskirts of Peshawar.
The training aircraft has a service ceiling of 22,000 feet, and a maximum speed of 268 kilometres per hour. The range of the aircraft is reported at 814km.
It had also been upgraded in 2017 to make it compatible with counter-insurgency operations by integrating it with a new glass cockpit and reconnaissance capabilities
The plane is already in service with Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran and South Africa. Nigeria bought the aircraft in early 2016, Qatar in June 2016, Turkiye bought 52 of them in May 2017 and Azerbajan in July 2017.
Pakistan was also set to export 40 Super Mushshak aircraft to Turkiye in cooperation between the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex Kamra and their Turkish counterparts.
