An F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet based at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, crashed Oct. 8, the Air Force said. The pilot was able to eject safely prior to the crash, per a Tuesday statement.
The aircraft was assigned to the 480th Fighter Squadron part of the U.S. Air Forces Europe’s 52nd Fighter Wing. The crash occurred around 3 p.m. local time, and the pilot sustained minor injuries, per the statement. The cause of the accident remains under investigation, and no further information was available Tuesday, a Spangdahlem Air Base spokesperson told Defense Daily. The F-16 is built by Lockheed Martin [LMT].
Roads around the crash are closed until the aircraft is recovered, local police said on Twitter Tuesday evening local time. The pilot is undergoing medical treatment and no one else was injured by the crash.
An Air Force F-16 assigned to the Thunderbird squadron crashed in April 2018 when the pilot lost consciousness during an aerial demonstration training flight at the Nevada Test and Training Range and was fatally injured on impact. The pilot’s gravity-induced loss of consciousness was determined to be the main cause of the accident, per an Air Force accident investigation board report released last October (Defense Daily, Oct. 16, 2018).