Feb 21, 2008 12:01 am US/Pacific
Pilot Dies After 2 Air Force Jets Collide
Two F-15 Jets Disappeared On Training Mission Off Florida Panhandle
MIAMI (CBS News) ―
-
-
U.S. Navy F-15 Eagle fighter jet in flight
AP
Air Force investigators were trying to determine the cause of an apparent collision of two fighter jets that killed one pilot during a training exercise.
The single-seat F-15C Eagles crashed Wednesday into the Gulf of Mexico, said Col. Todd Harmer, commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing, 58th Fighter Squadron. The pilots had ejected and were rescued, but one died later.
The base has suffered a "great loss," Harmer said in an e-mailed statement. "We will continue to do everything we can to assist our families and airmen at this tragic time."
The surviving pilot was in good condition. The names of the pilots were not released.
The cause of the collision about 35 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle was not immediately known, Harmer said. Weather in the area was clear.
The training exercise emphasized "basic maneuvers and tactics," he said.
Coast Guard officials in New Orleans told CBS News affiliate WWL-TV they responded to a distress call 40 miles off the coast from Tyndall Air Force Base.
A Coast Guard rescue jet located one pilot and radioed the location to a fishing vessel, which picked him up, said Coast Guard Petty Officer James Harless. A Coast Guard helicopter then hoisted the pilot off the vessel.
That pilot told rescuers he saw the other pilot eject but lost him in the clouds, Harless said. He told them the approximate location for the second pilot, who was found by a Coast Guard helicopter.
Both pilots had been with the 33rd Fighter Wing "for quite some time," Harmer said.
No debris from the jets has been found.
The Air Force grounded all of its F-15s - nearly 700 - after the catastrophic failure of an F-15C during a routine training flight in Missouri in November. The pilot safely ejected.
Most were back in service by January, but others were grounded indefinitely after defects were found.
The Air Force began using the F-15C in 1979. The planes, built by McDonnell Douglas Corp., were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1991 in support of Operation Desert Storm and have since been used in Iraq, Turkey and Bosnia.
The planes can fly as high as 65,000 feet, and each costs about $30 million, according to the Air Force.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Obama, Dems Show Command Of Health Vote 29 mins ago 
Stumble It!
Comments