PAF Mirage aircraft crashes near Sonmiani, pilot unharmed

E-Paper | October 01, 2026

PAF Mirage aircraft crashes near Sonmiani, pilot unharmed

Dawn.com Published April 16, 2015

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SONMIAMI: A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Mirage aircraft crashed near Balochistan's Sonmiani tehsil Thursday during a routine operational training mission, said a report published on Radio Pakistan.

According to a PAF spokesperson, the pilot is unharmed as he ejected himself from the aircraft safely. There has been no loss of life or damage to property on the ground.

The formation of a board of enquiry has been ordered by the Air Headquarters to investigate the possible cause of the crash.

Within the past year alone, there have been at least three accidents involving Mirage aircrafts.

The most recent took place in Dera Ismail Khan in March 2015, and claimed the lives of two PAF officers. The causes of the crash were a technical fault and bad weather.

In 2014, three separate crash incidents claimed the lives of three pilots and one civilian, while eight other civilians were injured.

Two of them took place in Jhang and Gadap, and involved Mirage jets, while the third, which occurred in June in Karachi's Baldia Town, involved an unidentified training aircraft which exploded mid-air.

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Ikram

Apr 16, 2015 03:33pm

Thank god the pilot was unharmed

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Hakali

Apr 16, 2015 03:47pm

I think it's time to Phase out Mirage Aircrafts.

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PaKisstan

Apr 16, 2015 03:52pm

High time to replace Mirage fleet with Russian SU-34 fighter jets. Pakistan should also look into capabilities of combat helicopter KA-52 to improve weaponry against border terrorists.

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nation lover

Apr 16, 2015 03:58pm

what abt out jf-17

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Akram

Apr 16, 2015 04:13pm

@nation lover JF17 Block 2 are currently being rolled out as we speak, the Mirages are all to be replaced with JF17 in the next few years. Unfortunately this takes time, good to hear the pilot is safe.

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taimoor khan

Apr 16, 2015 04:16pm

Time to decommission all aircraft except Chinese ones as they are most reliable.

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Khalil Anwer Hassan

Apr 16, 2015 04:46pm

Why don't we do away with the entire Mirage fleet. There have been successive crashes recently and the plane is now outdated. Our well trained pilots are more precious to us than the planes.

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Iqbal

Apr 16, 2015 05:36pm

Time to get some new generation of fighter aircraft

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Csk

Apr 16, 2015 05:49pm

You can't run a French fighter with Chinese parts !!

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lafanga

Apr 16, 2015 05:51pm

Thank God no loss of life. Planes can be replaced.

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Ali (CA)

Apr 16, 2015 05:57pm

India just place order for 36

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Pak Patriot

Apr 16, 2015 06:12pm

I concur with some of the comments here. The remainder of the PAF Mirage fleet, should be grounded and taken off operational aircraft inventory. Our well trained pilots, need to fly more superior aircraft.

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pakistani

Apr 16, 2015 06:19pm

@Pak Patriot yeah we should also buy couple of dozens of Rafael fighter the way Indians are buying in case of war these fighter planes will be no match to far superior rafael or eurp fighter kind of planes.

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Brar

Apr 16, 2015 06:45pm

The Pilot is safe , the plane can be procured .

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idea khan

Apr 16, 2015 07:30pm

Dont use Chinese spare parts. Even the USAF planes are having serious problems with spurious Chinese parts. There have been US congressional hearings about these fake spare parts.

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Salman

Apr 16, 2015 08:31pm

Isn't India purchasing 36 from them? I was just reading a comment by some Indian that they know how to roll out money from Pakistan, lol, well we're the nicer part of the subcontinent so we warn the neighbors of any bad deals before hand.

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Sunil

Apr 16, 2015 08:34pm

@PaKisstan Why from Russia? Why not from China, for the latest version of JF-17, cheaper than Su-34.

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anony

Apr 16, 2015 08:49pm

Thank god the pilot is safe.

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bkt

Apr 16, 2015 09:14pm

It is interesting to note that our All Weather Mirages are having difficulty coping with the weather. The PAF needs to look into it

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sunill

Apr 16, 2015 09:18pm

@Ali (CA) mirage is a 1980 french aircraft.but french rafele which is thier latest version is a 5th generation fighter aircraft which can carry heavy nuclear payload as far as 1000-1200 kms right into enemy territory and come back.i have heard they are also capable to miss enemy radars. while mirage(pak paf planes, french made) and mig21(india iaf planes,russian made) cannot carry nukes and can travel upto 200-250 kms

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Apr 16, 2015 09:21pm

Could anyone compare our number of training accidents vs others? Is it similar or more? being a poor country, we have to extra cautious and better trained, not to have accidents. Imagine, what if it is a real war situation, where operational conditions are worse.

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Ammy

Apr 16, 2015 09:25pm

Is there Indian hand suspected ?

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nation lover

Apr 16, 2015 09:34pm

@Ali (CA) its not mirage .. thats rafale

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Haider Rehman

Apr 16, 2015 10:59pm

Good to know Pilot is safe. Mirage needs to be replaced by JF 17 as soon as possible.

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Others

Apr 16, 2015 11:57pm

Better training can reduce such accidents.

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Iqbal

Apr 17, 2015 12:16am

Well mostly they are show pieces. Only used sparsely in the last few months and here we have our first crash. Very "battle ready" fleet.

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Tahir

Apr 17, 2015 12:23am

Mirage aircraft's are PAF backbone. We can't afford to replace them at once. A systematic approach needs to be adopted in order to phase out the old aircrafts and replace them with the new one. Thus, making sure that the numerical balance vis-a-vis with an enemy is not disturbed. Furthermore, it might be possible that this crash is due to pilot error and not because of the aircraft. I believe our engineers and technicians are also as trained and experienced in maintaining this aircraft as our pilots. So we have to be careful in replacing our inventory in view of overall strategic situation prevailing in the region.

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Shri

Apr 17, 2015 01:37am

Mirage2000 is a very capable and reliable aircraft. It is incompetence of pilots. JF thunder is not even a toy in front of Mirage2000.

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yussouf m mir

Apr 17, 2015 02:18am

paf loves joy rides

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Apr 17, 2015 04:46am

@Csk See something to do with China. Original Aircraft made in France and parts made in China. We will be doomed if we make huge investments with China. This should be an eye opener for all Pakistani's. We are a third world and they know it.

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Sukhera

Apr 17, 2015 07:02am

Within the past year there have been 3 crashes involving Mirage fighter jets claiming the lives of 6 pilots. PAF inquiry boards blamed the mechanical failure of the fighter jets as the cause of crashes. Most of the French Mirage planes were purchased in 1990 and are over 25 years old. It also appears they have not been properly maintained according to the manufacturer's guidelines. We can't afford to lose our pilots in the aging planes due to lack of proper maintenance. Its about time, we should ground all the Mirage jets until we find out exactly whats wrong with them.. We should also contact the manufacturer Dassault to look at the jets for evaluation and the necessary repairs before flying these aircrafts. We must make sure they are airworthy before sending our pilots in these deadly traps. I urge air force Chief to look into this matter asap.

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rehan

Apr 17, 2015 08:12am

The Mirage obviously needs to be replaced !

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Bundy007

Apr 22, 2015 07:17pm

@Ikram Thanks.Just talked to the pilot on Phone.He got some minor injuries,Pleas pray for him.

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