SOURCE: AFI
Pakistan’s efforts to conceal a recent fighter jet crash were thwarted by the manufacturer of the pilot’s ejection seat. A JF-17 Block 2 aircraft went down near Jhang district on June 5th, but the incident remained unreported in Pakistani media.
The truth came to light on June 11th with a social media post by Martin-Baker, the company behind the PK16LE ejection seat used in the JF-17. Their post confirmed the crash and successful pilot ejection, exposing Pakistan’s attempt to keep the incident quiet.
This latest crash raises concerns about the JF-17’s troubled history, particularly its engine issues. JF-17 equipped with the Russian RD-93 engine, as seen atleast two engine failure behind the root cause of crash out of 5 one being structural failure.
Pakistan has been offered the Chinese WS-13 engine in its JF-17 Block 3 jets. However, Pakistan’s are skeptical of this Chinese engine’s reliability and its also unproven track record, and Pakistan reportedly refused the WS-13 for their planned Block 3 variant, and wanted to go for RD-93MA an improved variant of the RD-93 but since Ukraine-Russia war it has stopped production of its JF-17 Block 3 due to want for engines and unable to procure more powerful RD-93MA engines that is hampering growth of the JF-17 fleet.