On Wednesday, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) lost its valiant pilot, Wing Commander Nauman Akram, when his F-16 crashed near Shakarparian, Islamabad. The aircraft was engaged in a rehearsal display for the Pakistan Day Parade when it lost control and crashed.
It is unclear exactly what caused the crash at this time and an investigation is underway. Thankfully nobody died on the ground when the jet careened into a treed area after a sharp maneuver.
A nearby closed-circuit surveillance camera footage shows the jet slamming into the ground in a high-alpha state.
The video clearly shows the aircraft in a nose-high attitude while losing altitude, impacting a tree or other object, and subsequently hitting the ground at high speed, before skidding forward in a giant fireball.
It’s a horrific scene, with a bystander in a car seen close by during the sequence of events, but this video could help investigators better understand what happened to the plane and its pilot.
The canopy appears intact before the crash, so there are no noticeable signs of an attempt to eject.
Previous videos have emerged of the incident that seems to show the F-16 executing what looks like something similar to a split-S at low altitude, before impacting the ground.
It is unclear if this maneuver was pilot controlled or the result of some sort of mechanical malfunction. Multiple outlets have identified the pilot flying the F-16 as Wing Commander Nauman Akram. Sadly, he did not survive the mishap, but thankfully there were no casualties on the ground.
The aircraft involved in the incident was an F-16A.
