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U.S. Air Force F-16 Crash Kills 2
An Air Force F-16 chase plane on a photography mission crashed Tuesday in a remote mountainous area, killing both men on board.
The F-16B, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on a photo mission to record the test flight of another F-16.
It went down about 7 a.m. some 30 miles east of the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, in an area capped with volcanic peaks.
``The two air crew members have been confirmed dead at the scene,'' Maj. Dennis Mehring said.
Killed were Maj. Aaron George, a pilot with the 416th Flight Test Squadron, and Judson Brohmer, an aerial photographer. It was not immediately clear if the two had ejected from the plane or were trapped in its wreckage, Mehring said.
A board of officers will investigate the accident of the roughly $30 million plane.
It was the Air Force's second F-16 crash this month and the fifth since March.
On July 6, an Air Force pilot was killed off the coast of South Carolina while on a training mission out of Shaw Air Force Base.
In June, a pilot was killed in southern South Korea while on a training mission out of Kunsan. In April, a pilot based at Misawa Air Base ejected safely before his plane crashed into the sea off the coast of Japan.
In March, the pilot of an F-16 fighter out of Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico ejected safely before the jet crashed near a bombing range. The pilot, who was treated for minor injuries, told investigators the jet's single engine failed during the routine training flight.
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