An Israeli F-16 fighter jet has crashed in the West Bank, killing the pilot.
The 21-year-old pilot, Assaf Ramon, was the son of Israel's only astronaut, Ilan Ramon, who died in the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.

From (and more at):- BBC NEWS | Middle East | Jet crash kills Israel hero's son (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8253465.stm)

truly, truly sad news :(

God moves in mysterious ways......... yeah right.
No offence meant to people with faith. Just my views.

Thanks so much for your compassionate response regarding a fellow aviator.

ז"ל to a hero defending Israel

11Fan. I hope I am not detecting a note of sarcasm in your post in response to mine. I am not religious, but I was meaning to convey lack of understanding as to why God allows such terrible things to happen. I'm sorry if you mis-interpreted this.

JEM60,

Perhaps I did mis-intrepret, but that said, I didn't take into consideration your right to say what you felt, or respect your opinion.

I also suspect that the lack of an understanding of "God's Will" is pretty much universal.

Nevertheless, my apologies sir.

..just my view:

1) I am a pilot
2) I know all pilots will die sooner or later one way or the other
3) I know some of us will die flying
4) I knew this before I became a pilot
5) It still feels sad. Even if not logical.

Sorry for his family!

And please keep the "hero defending..." stuff down!! I resent persons who try to make personal tragedy into political points! You are inviting the next poster to ask how many civilians his bombs killed! This does NOT belong on PPrune!

Cheers,
Redbar1

whoa man. calm down!
wow. For one against the hijacking of threads to score points it seems you've done the same by launching your tirade. :|

11 Fan. Thankyou for your reply and apology which you needn't have posted. Much respect to you for doing so, moving on.:ok:

R.I.P
May God give the family strength to overcome this loss :(