Two pilots died when a military training jet crashed near Alabama’s Montgomery Regional Airport on Friday, officials said.
Marshall J. Taggart, Jr., the airport’s executive director, said the airport was informed of the accident in an adjacent wooded area at around 5:05 pm.
The T-38 trainer was based at the 14th Flight Training Wing at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, the US Air Force said in a statement. Taggart said he believed the aircraft was flying to a base in Tallahassee, Florida.
“The pilots were flying on a training mission at the time of the incident,” said the Air Force.
The deceased’s identities were not immediately revealed.
“There are no words that can describe the sadness that accompanies the loss of our teammates,” Col. Seth Graham, commander of the 14th Flying Training Wing, said in an updated Air Force statement on Friday night.
Montgomery Airport abuts an Air Force facility known as Dannelly Field, home of the Alabama Air Force’s 187th Fighter Wing. It is not clear whether a pilot was trying to land there.
“A safety investigation commission will meet to investigate the accident,” said the Air Force.
The Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency told residents to stay away from the area on Friday night.
Taggart said the accident did not change the arrival and departure times of the airport.
