Air Force training jet crash in Alabama: 1 American, 1 Japanese pilot killed

An American Air Force pilot and a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force pilot were both killed on Friday when their T-38 Talon jet trainer crashed near the Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama, Col. Seth Graham, commander of the 14th Flying Training Wing, announced on Facebook on Saturday.

The pilots were flying a routine training mission out of Columbus

Air Force Base, Mississippi, when the aircraft crashed at around 5:30 p.m. that day, said Graham, who declined to identify the pilots out of respect for their families, though their next-of-kin had already been notified.

“I know I speak for the entire 14th Flying Training Wing, that we are grieving this loss right along with you,” Graham said in a press conference live-streamed on Facebook on Saturday. “We here are a close-knit team, and the loss of two of our teammates is something that affects us all.”

T-38 Talons are crewed by a student pilot and an instructor pilot. Graham explained that the Japanese pilot, a 24-year-old lieutenant, was the student on Friday, while the American, a 25-year-old lieutenant, was the instructor. The officers were assigned to the 50th Flying Training Squadron, a unit within the 14th Flying Training Wing.

Graham explained that the two pilots were on the first leg of an overnight training mission. Cross-country training missions are routine for pilots to practice flying elsewhere and recovering their aircraft the next day, the colonel said.

The Air Force is now investigating the fatal incident to find out what caused the crash. The tragedy comes almost exactly 15 months after two U.S. Air Force pilots, Lt. Col John “Matt” Kincade, 47, and 2nd Lt. Travis B. Wilkie, 23, were killed at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, during a training mission involving T-38C Talon aircraft.

The crash, which involved two separate Talons, caused the Air Force to stop using formation landings as part of its undergraduate pilot training curriculum. Kincade and Wilkie were flying at the left wing of a second T-38 to the center runway at Vance in a formation landing when their aircraft collided with the lead T-38, rolled over top of it and landed inverted off the runway. Both Kincade and Wilkie were killed on impact.

The decision to stop formation landings came only after the Air Force initially blamed the fallen pilots for the crash, Military.com reported last June. Formation landing is hardly used even by career aviators, a former F-15 pilot told Military.com

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