DeepC
27th Jun 2002, 17:09
Just heard the end of a news report.
Can anyone confirm?
CBA_caption
27th Jun 2002, 17:21
BBC five live reporting pilot lost. Thoughts to the family.
Tiger_mate
27th Jun 2002, 20:11
ITV Teletext:
FRANCE A US Air Force jet on a training mission has crashed in a forest in Eastern France, killing two people, regional officials say.
:( RIP
canberra
27th Jun 2002, 20:58
well if two people have been killed dont think its an a10. personally i reckon an f15. condolences to the families. of course it could have killed someone on the ground.
Tigger_Too
28th Jun 2002, 04:31
STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - A U.S. A-10 "Warthog" ground attack aircraft taking part in military exercises has crashed in eastern France, killing the pilot, according to French and U.S. officials.
The low-flying anti-tank plane based at the Spangdahlem air force base in southwestern Germany crashed at 2:45 p.m. local time (1.45 p.m British time) on Thursday in the heavily wooded Vosges mountains region near the small town of Domptail, a French local government official said.
The U.S. Air Force confirmed the crash in a statement from Spangdahlem.
"A pilot with the 81st Fighter Squadron here died today in an A-10 crash," the statement said.
No ground casualties were reported. The name of the pilot was being withheld until his family was informed.
"The aircraft was on a tactical leadership programme-training mission," the statement said. "There were neither live nor depleted uranium munitions on board."
A board of officers will investigate the accident, it added.
A spokesman for the U.S. Air Force headquarters at Ramstein in Germany denied a report from a French air force base that the aircraft had been taking part in a joint exercise with French, Belgian and American forces.
"It was a U.S.-only training mission," Major Scott Vadnais told Reuters. "Two U.S. airplanes left the base but only one returned."
The remains of the aircraft, which was carrying a large quantity of kerosene, were scattered over a distance of several hundred metres, triggering a raging forest fire.
Three helicopters belonging to the French police, army and air force scanned the region in the hope of finding the pilot, said a spokesman at an air force base in the French town of Drachenbronn which monitors the airspace over eastern France.
Spangdahlem is home to the U.S. Air Force's 52nd Fighter Wing and the largest U.S. fighter aircraft operation in Germany.