Funeral held for Pakistan air chief

Funeral held for Pakistan air chief

President Musharraf tries to comfort a son of Chief Marshal Mir

A funeral service has been held for Pakistan's air force chief and 16 other passengers who died 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.

President Pervez Musharraf attended the prayer meeting in Islamabad and spoke of the sense of loss he felt at the death of a friend.

Air Chief Marshal Mir's wife and two senior air force commanders were also among those killed.

The prayer meeting took place at the Chaklala Air Force Base, near Islamabad where the coffins were draped in the Pakistani flag.

'Accident'

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

Mir: On his way to inspect air base

However, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said: "This plane crash was an accident."

Speaking at the funeral President Pervez Musharraf spoke of his sadness at the death of Mir and the other officers.

"This is a very sad day for me. I have lost a very good friend. This is a sad day for the whole nation. The death of Mushaf Ali Mir is a great loss for the country," said President Musharraf.

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

After the prayer meeting, the bodies of the victims were flown to their home towns for burial.

Routine visit

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.

Mourners said prayers before the bodies were flown home

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.

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

Accidents involving Pakistan air force planes during training flights are not uncommon but, as there is speculation 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.