June 11
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An F-15 fighter jet crashed Monday after colliding in mid-air with another military jet during a training exercise, Air Force officials said. The other jet landed safely, and no one was seriously injured.
The pilot of the F-15C ejected safely and was taken a military hospital, said a spokeswoman at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks. The pilot did not have serious injuries, she said.
The pilot of the other jet, an F-16C that landed safely, was uninjured, she said.
It was not immediately clear why the two jets collided at 11:23 a.m. local time during a training exercise about 90 miles east of Fairbanks in Alaska's interior. A board of Air Force officers will investigate.
The crash happened at the Pacific Alaska Range Complex, a 60,000-acre training ground.
The $27 million F-15C that crashed was from Langley Air Force Base, Va., and the F-16C was from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
The training exercise includes more than 1,400 military members from the U.S., Singapore and Australia.
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