Pakistan Air Force Chief Dies
in Crash
The Associated Press
Thursday, February 20, 2003; 3:21 AM A Pakistani air force plane crashed Thursday
in a remote region of northwestern Pakistan, killing all 17 people on board,
including the chief of the air force.
Rescue crews were at the site of the crash near Kohat, about 150 miles northwest
of the capital Islamabad, said Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmad, but there were no
survivors.
The crash killed air force chief Mushaf Ali Mir, 57. He was traveling to the
Kohat Air Base along with eight other air force officials and eight crew members
when the aircraft went down about 16 miles from the base, Ahmad said.
The vice chief of the Pakistan Air Force Syed Qaiser Hussain has been appointed
acting air force chief, Ahmed said.
The control tower at the Kohat Air Base lost contact with the Fokker-27 turboprop
aircraft shortly before it was to land, he said. Surrounded by mountains, Kohat,
a town of about 100,000 people, is barely 50 miles from the Afghan border.
Skies were overcast at the time of the crash. Officials said there was no sign
the plane was shot down, but the cause of the crash was unknown.
The air force chief was on his way to Kohat from Islamabad to conduct an annual
inspection of the air base when the plane went down, the air force said. The
base is used as a training ground for Pakistani air force pilots.
An inquiry into the crash has been ordered, he said.
© 2003 The Associated Press