Fighter jet crash leaves pilot dangling from power line
A Belgian F-16 pilot turned an ejection into a hair-raising, high-wire act Thursday after his fighter jet crashed in western France, according to reports.
The pilot and his fellow aviator were on a training flight from Florennes in the Belgian province of Namur to the French base of Lann-Bihoué near Lorient, according to the BBC.
The crew of the unarmed jet reported an “engine technical incident” moments before they ejected, according to the Belgian Defense Ministry.
A wing of the crippled jet clipped the roof of a house in the town of Pluvigner, ripping a hole in the building, before smashing into a farm field and setting it ablaze.
No one on the ground was hurt.
One of the pilots was left dangling by his parachute from the 250,000-volt power line.
“They had to cut the electric current, but I’ve been on the phone to him and he says he feels fine,” Belgian air force chief Frederik Vansina told the BBC.
It took rescuers two hours to cut him loose from his perch high above the ground.
Vansina said both pilots were checked at a hospital and were expected to be released shortly.
“It was a sensitive and long operation,” local official Pierre Clavreuil told reporters in Pluvigner.
“It needed a lot of sangfroid,” added Cyrille Berrod of the Morbihan fire brigade.
Ludovic Kauffer, who lives in the house, was at work at the time of the morning crash, but his parents were home and miraculously avoided injury.
“My mother is in shock, my father is too,” Kauffer told The Associated Press. “The most important thing is that everyone is OK.”
Officials evacuated eight homes with a total of 15 residents, according to Agence France-Presse.
The plane — which entered service in 1983 — was a navigation training mission when it went down, authorities said.
Belgian air safety investigators headed to France to join the investigation into what caused the accident.