Two South Carolina Air National Guard F-16 fighter pilots ejected safely after an apparent midair collision in eastern Georgia, the Guard said.
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“They crashed in a sparsely populated area, a wooded area” say officials.
The strategy calls for the warplanes to be the first to enter enemy territory, where they use sophisticated electronics to find and destroy an opponent’s radars and anti-aircraft missile sites. He said the accident occurred during routine training.
“We have a true blessing that both of our pilots were well-experienced”, said Major General Robert Livingston.
He would not release the pilot’s names but said both are lieutenant colonels and are senior instructors in the unit who have flown in combat.
Gentile was heading to the crash scene Wednesday, King said.
It happened just after 9:30 Tuesday night.
The jets were assigned to the South Carolina Air National Guard’s 169th Fighter Wing.
The pilots in the latest crash have returned to SC, local media reported, citing a guard official.
There were no immediate reports of injuries on the ground. He said they carry the technical designation “Block 52”, which refers to upgrades that are created to make them some of the most advanced F-16s in the U.S. Air Force.
The Air Force will conduct a safety investigation of the incident.
The collision comes after both of the military’s precision flying teams suffered crashes last week.
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Only last week, the US Navy lost one of its Blue Angels pilots after his F/A-18 jet crashed shortly after takeoff in Smyrna, about 24 miles (39 km) southeast of Nashville, while he was practicing for an air show. On the same day, a Thunderbirds F-16 crashed in Colorado but the pilot ejected safely. The four people on board the jets were pulled from the Atlantic Ocean by a commercial fishing ship.
