This is being reported as a "crash" yet the aircraft dissapeared from radar and no trace of wreckage has been found. Another "missing" aircraft???
Dubai:Tuesday, September 30, 2003
No trace of Bahraini pilot, F-16 wreckage
Manama |By Mohammed Almezel, Bureau Chief | 30-09-2003
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Teams from the Bahrain army and the US Navy have failed to locate the body of a Bahraini pilot whose Air Force F-16 fighter jet crashed at sea on Saturday, sources said yesterday.
A statement, carried by the Bahrain news agency (BNA), said yesterday His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was "personally following the strenuous efforts of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) and a number of friendly forces in the search operation of the missing Bahraini fighter jet."
Bahraini, American and Australian rescue teams have been involved in patrols to the north of Bahrain where the F-16 vanished from radar screens on Saturday night, local reports said yesterday.
However, the search has failed to recover the body of the pilot, Royal Air Force Colonel Abdul Aziz Senan Al Doussary, who is presumed dead or the plane's wreckage, an informed source told Gulf News yesterday.
Al Doussary "seems to have plunged to his death" when his single-pilot plane crashed in the Arabian Gulf, some 46 miles north of Bahrain, Gulf News learned.
The incident took place during a night training mission involving another plane, which has returned safely to its base, the source said, adding that Col Senan was apparently performing "a new manoeuvre" when the plane crashed.
This is the first fighter jet crash ever in Bahrain, the source said.
A passenger aircraft, a Gulf Air Airbus 320-212 coming from Egypt, crashed at sea about three miles north-east of Bahrain International Airport on August 23, 2000 resulting in the death of 135 passengers and its eight-member crew.