Two South Carolina Air National Guard fighter pilots ejected safely from their jets after they collided over eastern Georgia while performing routine night operations, the National Guard said on Wednesday.
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Both pilots ejected safely and were returned to McEntire Joint National Guard Base to be debriefed as part of the crash investigation.
Two S.C. Air National Guard F-16 fighter jets crashed near Jefferson County, Ga.
The aircraft was destroyed, but the pilots were found, treated at a hospital and released, said Col. Nicholas Gentile of the 169th Fighter Wing Commander.
“We had planes spread out across the Southeast last night”, Gentile said, adding that the bombing range is only about a 15-minute flight from the SC base.
The US Air Force will start an outside investigation in the next three to four days.
Anderson said the pilots did not talk about the details of the crash. Gen. Roy McCarty, assistant adjutant general for SC.
Earlier in Colorado, another air show pilot from the Thunderbirds squadron was forced to eject his F-16 before hitting the ground during a graduation ceremony attended by President Barack Obama who later visited the unnamed pilot.
“They crashed in a sparsely populated area, a wooded area” say officials.
There is no reason to think the crashes are related despite the similarity in aircraft models, Gentile said.
Livingston said it is the first similar crash of any South Carolina Guard unit in 30 years.
The military was flying a doctor in to examine them and release them after the review.
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A Blue Angels F/A-18 crashed last Thursday near Nashville, Tennessee, while taking off for a practice session.
