Yes, that was my first thought, but there is one pilot missing. Is it possible that he flew a trainer like an L-39 on his own?
It is common practice all over the world that first solo sorties are flown in the same trainer in which you learn to fly. There is absolutely nothing odd about a single pilot flying training sorties in an L-39 (or T-6, Hawk, K-8, whatever)
Of course there is also the possibility it was on a COIN sortie – in which case again there will be just one pilot on board – both to cut weight and avoid unncessay risk by a second crewmember.
Fabe: don’t know exactly what you mean by “export version alread equipped with underwing pylons”. All L-39s have underwing pylons. Yemen uses the earliest and less suitable version for COIN, the L-39C capable of carrying only 2 wing pylons. L-39 ZO has 4 pylons and ZA has 4 pylons and a semi-conformal gun pod on the centerline.
Anyway, the last sentence in the news linked by Tango III says:
“pointing out the safety of the plane crew”
Doesn’t say it was one pilot. Crew usually means more than one.
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