Two Zimbabwe air force pilots on a training
flight were killed Friday after the Chinese-made jet they were flying crashed, dpa reported.
The K8 jet trainer crashed at Thornhill air base in the central city of Gweru,
the air force's main military base in the country, air force director-general
of operations Air Commodore Shebba Shumbayawonda told the state-controlled
Herald newspaper.
The two were training for ceremonial flypasts, he said, but gave no indication
of how the crash occurred and did not name the victims. An investigation had
been launched.
It is the first crash involving one of the air force's squadron of K8 jet
trainers since they were acquired in 2005.
Zimbabwe's air force was one of the most respected in Africa, with pilots with
combat experience from the civil war in Democratic Republic of Congo in the
late 1990s.
However, military analysts say its effectiveness has slumped in the last five
years as a result of a Western arms embargo on President Robert Mugabe's
regime, and the departure of skilled pilots and technicians escaping the
country's economic collapse.
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