Breaking: F-16-I crashes, crew missing?
An Israeli F-16-I crashed in the Ramon Crater in southern Israel on Wednesday night on a routine training mission and the two-man crew is missing. An Israeli air force F-16 crashed in the deserts of southern Israel while on a routine training flight, the military said Thursday, adding that its two-man crew were missing.More details when I have them.
Large forces were carrying out search and rescue in the area of the Ramon Crater looking for the pilot and navigator, an army spokeswoman said.
The fighter was a US-made F-16I, custom designed for the Israeli air force and believed capable of reaching arch-foe Iran. This was the first crash of the model.
Air force commander Ido Nehushtan has ordered an investigation into the accident and has temporarily grounded the F-16I fleet, the spokeswoman said.
The accident occurred on Wednesday evening, but the military censor barred publication of the news until the families of the crew had been notified, standard practice in Israel.
UPDATE 3:02 AM
Israel Radio's 3:00 am newscast (yes, I'm working late tonight) had no more than I reported above except to say that search crews are out. I doubt those search crews can be effective in the darkness of an early night in a lunar month in the middle of a crater. I'd be shocked if they find anything before daylight - about three hours from now.
Labels: F-16-I, IAF, Ramon Crater
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:28 AM
2 Comments:
Yikes. If they punched out, everybody should have just shut up. I just saw this news crawling on the bottom of the TV and I thought, jeez, isn't it soooo bizarre that every little thing in Israel is international news.
Accidents do happen.
We can only pray the crew bailed out before the plane crashed.
Let's hope they're found safe and sound.
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