An F-16 Combating Falcon fighter jet crashed in western Louisiana noon Wednesday, a state police spokesperson has confirmed to Air Power Occasions.
The Air Power jet went down in an uninhabited, wooded space of Beauregard Parish, close to the Louisiana-Texas border south of Fort Polk. Its pilot safely ejected and was taken to the Army base, Louisiana State Police Trooper First Class Derek Senegal stated.
Louisiana NBC affiliate KTAL reported that the Texas Air Nationwide Guard owns the jet. The state hosts F-16 flight coaching at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland’s 149th Fighter Wing. The Texas Navy Division didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The realm’s terrain was making it tough for regulation enforcement to achieve the crash web site, Senegal added.
The Air Power suffered three F-16 mishaps in fiscal 2021, together with one which destroyed the airplane and killed its pilot, in line with the Air Power Security Heart. About three Combating Falcons have been totaled annually on common for the previous decade.
The service owns about 900 F-16C/D airframes, which have flown for the reason that Eighties. Every jet value $19 million in 1998 {dollars}, the Air Power stated, or greater than $30 million now.
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Rachel Cohen joined Air Power Occasions as senior reporter in March 2021. Her work has appeared in Air Power Journal, Inside Protection, Inside Well being Coverage, the Frederick News-Publish (Md.), the Washington Publish, and others.