Pakistan mourns air crash victims

Pakistan mourns air crash victims

None of those on board survived

Funeral prayers have been held for Pakistan's air force chief and 16 others who were killed when their plane crashed on Thursday.

Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir died when the Fokker-27 aircraft he was travelling in came down in the remote Kohat district, about 250 kilometres (150 miles) north-west of the capital, Islamabad.

His wife and two senior air force commanders were among those killed.

High level investigations are under way in Pakistan to determine the cause of the crash.

Flags flew at half-mast as Pakistan observed a day of mourning for the air crash victims.

President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali attended a prayer meeting at the main air force base in Islamabad.

The bodies of the victims were then flown to their home towns for burial.

Investigation

The cause of the crash is not yet known, but it is thought technical problems rather than bad weather are now being considered.

"At present nothing can be said with certainty," Air Commodore Sarfraz Khan told a news conference.

Mir: On his way to inspect air base

He said the aircraft had not had any technical problems when it took off from Islamabad and, although the weather in the area had been poor for the last few days, conditions had been fit for flying the plane.

The incident has sent shockwaves across the country's military establishment.

President Musharraf has expressed profound grief and sorrow over the air chief's death.

Air Chief Marshal Mir has been described as a "dynamic moderniser" who played a key role in maintaining Pakistan's air force in the face of a US arms embargo.

Colleagues called his death a great loss.

He was on a routine visit to an airbase in the North-West Frontier Province when disaster struck.

There are several such bases in the region which were particularly useful during anti-Soviet operations in the 1980s and also for US-led operations in Afghanistan.

Military sources said radio contact was lost as soon as the aircraft entered the mountainous region.

State of emergency

The deputy chief of the Pakistan Air Force, Syed Qaiser Hussain, has been appointed acting air force chief, a spokesman said.

The BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says as news of the crash was received in the capital, an emergency was declared at all the air force bases in the area.

Accidents involving Pakistan air force planes during training flights are not uncommon but, as news emerges that technical problems may have caused the crash, questions will be asked about the technical efficiency of Pakistan's air force.

The only other comparable incident is the air crash involving a former military ruler, General Zia ul-Haq, in 1988, but that was widely believed to be an act of sabotage.