U.S.

Calif. Fighter Crash Kills Two

July 17, 2001 / 3:31 PM EDT / AP

A U.S. Air Force F-16 chase plane crashed early Tuesday in a remote mountainous area of eastern California, killing both crew members on board.

The F-16B, built by Lockheed Martin Corp., took off from Edwards Air Force Base on a photo mission to record the test flight of another F-16.

It went down about 7 a.m. some 30 miles east of the China Lake Naval Air Warfare Center, in an area capped with volcanic peaks.

"The two air crew members have been confirmed dead at the scene," Maj. Dennis Mehring said.

Killed were Maj. Aaron George, a pilot with the 416th Flight Test Squadron, and Judson Brohmer, a subcontractor aerial photographer. It was not immediately clear if the two had ejected from the plane or were trapped in its wreckage, Mehring said.

A board of officers will investigate the accident of the roughly $30 million plane.

It is the third F-16 crash in the last few months.

In June, an Air Force pilot was killed in a rural area of southern South Korea while on a training mission out of a base in Kunsan. Witnesses said the plane hit an electricity pole before crashing into a rice paddy and exploding in flames. A board of officers was assigned to investigate the cause of the crash.

In March, the pilot of an F-16 fighter out of Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico ejected safely before the jet crashed near a bombing range.

The pilot told investigators the jet's single engine failed during the routine training flight. She was treated for minor injuries.