Four people confirmed dead in downing of fighter jet

At least four people were killed when a fighter jet was shot down by resistance forces in Sagaing Region’s Pale Township on Tuesday, local sources have confirmed. The aircraft crashed in the village of Sa Par Sayt shortly after noon on Tuesday after being downed during fighting between regime and resistance forces near the border with Magway Region. “Three men and a woman were killed when the fighter jet crashed into the building where they were sheltering,” a member of the National Unity Government’s local administrative team told Myanmar Now. According to the administrator, two more people were also killed by junta airstrikes on the village at around 3pm on the same day. The fighter jet crashed near a monastery in Sa Par Sayt, igniting fires that destroyed a two-storey building and at least four houses in the area, local sources reported. The military reportedly deployed a Y-12 aircraft and a fighter jet to bomb Sa Par Sayt after the incident. A restaurant in Min Taing Pin, a village around one mile southeast of Sa Par Sayt, was also damaged in the airstrikes. Sa Par Sayt is about six miles southeast of the village of Kant Daunt, where resistance forces have been attempting to seize a junta base since June 2. The village is less than 14 miles southwest of the junta-controlled town of Pale. The People’s Liberation Army, the group leading the effort to seize the base, claimed responsibility for downing the fighter jet. In a statement, it said that at least four bodies had been found at the crash site. Most were burned beyond recognition, it added. Myanmar’s military regime denied, however, that the plane had been shot down. It claimed that the jet fighter crashed due to engine failure. The aircraft that crashed is believed to be an F-7 single-engine fighter jet, also known as a Hunter 77, designed to be flown by one pilot. According to Zin Yaw, a former junta army captain who has defected to the anti-regime resistance, the aircraft is sometimes referred to as a “flying coffin” due to safety issues. “It’s a military term, implying that the aircraft is risky to operate. We believed the pilot was Captain Nay Min Kyaw, but we’re still trying to confirm that,” he said. In 2018, a similar F-7 fighter jet crashed in the Bago Yoma mountain range due to mechanical failure. On Tuesday, resistance forces based in Pale Township launched attacks on Zee Phyu Kone, a village less than six miles northeast of Kant Daunt. The downed fighter jet had carried out airstrikes near the village shortly before its crash on Tuesday. Zee Phyu Kone and Inn Ma Htee, another village in the area, are regarded as strongholds of the pro-junta Pyu Saw Htee militia. Both villages also have junta bases. A skirmish was also reported near Kaing Twin, a village near Inn Ma Htee, as junta forces attempted to march towards Sa Par Sayt on Tuesday evening.

Four people confirmed dead in downing of fighter jet

At least two other people were also killed after the site of the crash was bombed by Myanmar’s military later the same day

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