ISLAMABAD: A French-built Pakistani fighter jet crashed during a training flight on Wednesday, killing the pilot, the air force said.

The Mirage-V aircraft, on a “routine operational training mission crashed due to technical malfunction” near the town of Uthal in sparsely populated southwestern Balochistan province, it said in a statement.

“The pilot embraced martyrdom.

No loss of civilian life or property has been reported on ground,” it said and added that an inquiry had been ordered to ascertain the cause of the accident.

Pakistan's air force has a fleet of Chinese aircraft, including F-7PGs and A-5s, US-built F-16s and French Mirages.

It recently acquired medium-tech JF-17 or Thunder jets, manufactured jointly by China and Pakistan.