The US coast guard launched a search and rescue mission on Thursday after an F-16 fighter jet went missing over the Gulf of Mexico, air force officials said.
Officials said that the aircraft was flying on a routine training mission out of Tyndall air force base in Florida.
The base lost contact with the pilot at around 9.15am, and rescue forces were immediately dispatched to the plane’s last known location, 70 to 75 miles south of the base.
The US coast guard’s eighth district confirmed that it received a call from the air force at 9.30am reporting “a downed military aircraft with one person aboard”, and were responding with two ships, one fixed-wing aircraft and one helicopter.
Colonel Mark O’Laughlin, vice-commander of 325th Fighter Wing, said that finding the pilot was the top priority.
Second Lieutenant Chris Boyer-Meeter, the 325th’s public affairs officer, told the Guardian that the missing aircraft was part of “a two-ship”, a pair of aircraft in a training exercise. The other aircraft was an F-4, converted to a target aircraft or QF-4.
These can be flown as manned or unmanned, but Boyer-Meeter confirmed that it was manned at the time the F-16 went missing. He said the air force “can’t discuss what the pilot [of the second aircraft] has seen or hasn’t seen”.
According to a report in the Stars and Stripes, the aircraft – which is an older type than the F-22 Raptors that the 325th Fighter Wing currently uses – was being prepared for conversion into an unmanned aerial target for training and practice, but the conversion had not yet been made.
This is not the only training accident this year. In October, two Oklahoma Air National Guard F-16s collided in mid-air during a training exercise. One pilot ejected, and the other landed safely. No one was injured.
