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US Pilot killed in crash near RAF base

21 October 2015

By James

A jet belonging to the US military has crashed near an RAF base in Suffolk, the Ministry of Defence has announced.

The plane came down in fields near RAF Lakenheath, which is operated by the US military, on Wednesday morning. The pilot of the jet was killed in the crash, but no-one else was hurt. The crash happened not far from Ely on the Cambridgeshire/Suffolk border, although Cambridgeshire emergence services were those which arrived at the scene of the crash. Firefighters were on the scene shortly after the incident, but a spokesman for the Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said that no firefighting action had taken place. Local police told reporters that one fatality had taken place.

US military sources confirmed the crash of the F-18 single-seat jet, but said that they were still working to ascertain what had happened. Colonel Robert Novotny, commander of the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, said on Facebook that the Wing was “coordinating with the local responders and preserving all the evidence we can”.

 

 

 

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