A pilot’s body was found after a US F-15C Eagle fighter plane crashed in the North Sea during a routine training mission on Monday, military officials said.
“The downed F-15C Eagle pilot from 48 Fighter Wing has been found and confirmed to be dead,” said a statement on the RAF Lakenheath Facebook page where the aircraft was based.
His name will be released once the next connections are known, officials said.
The F-15C Eagle crashed after taking off from the base near the town of Mildenhall in eastern England.
The base is home to 48 Wing Fighter, which has operated since 1960 and has more than 4,500 active duty personnel.
Earlier today, the British coast guard said it had located the wreckage of the fighter plane that had crashed during a training mission in the North Sea, but that the pilot was still missing.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed that the wreckage had been located by a search and rescue mission including a helicopter, “other aircraft in the area”, as well as lifeboats.
The single-seater descended 74 nautical miles (137 km) off the East Yorkshire coast on Monday morning.
Citing a flight tracking website, Sky News television said the plane had circled the area before disappearing.
The US military said in a previous statement that the aircraft was on a “routine training mission with a pilot on board”.
The cause of the accident is not yet known.
Manufactured by Boeing, the twin-engine F-15C entered service with the US Air Force in 1979, according to security and defense group Janes.
A total of 211 of the 409 F15-C products are in service today.
Royal Air Force spokesman Martin Tinworth said the plane had an “exceptional flight safety record”.
In October 2015, an American F-18 fighter plane crashed near the town of Ely in eastern England, killing the pilot. He took off from RAF Lakenheath.
Last October, an F-15 from the base crashed into a field but the pilot ejected safely. In January 2014, four airmen were killed when an American helicopter crashed during a low-altitude training exercise.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
