Air Force suspends training after plane nearly crashed during exercise
The Israeli Air Force said it was suspending training exercises on Wednesday evening after a fighter plane nearly crashed during an exercise.
According to the military, the incident occurred during an air and land threat management training exercise, “when the pilot turned his attention to the aircraft screen and did not noticed that he had lost altitude and was heading towards the ground “.
Disaster was averted when the jet’s navigator realized what was going on and pulled the hunter out of his dive.
“Due to the quick and professional identification, the two got out of danger unscathed,” the military said.
The IDF did not identify the plane, however, public broadcaster Kan said it was one of the Air Force’s F-15i fighters.
The military said training exercises were canceled until the incident was investigated and lessons learned.
Last year, a “Snunit” trainer carrying a student pilot, Cpl. Lihu Ben-Bassa, 19, and his trainer Major (res.) Itay Zayden, 42, crashed near Kibbutz Mishmar Hanegev in southern Israel, killing them both.
The investigation of the fatal accident could not determine the cause of the crash of the plane.
