Belgian AF F-16BM crashes in France leaving pilot stuck on power line - Photo: © Jim van de Burgt

PILOT STUCK ON POWER LINE AFTER BELGIAN AIR FORCE F-16 CRASHED IN FRANCE

LORIENT, FRANCE – A Belgian Air Force (BAF) F-16BM fighter jet crashed Thursday morning in western France, leaving one pilot caught on a high-voltage power line. The fighter jet was flying from Florennes Air Base in Belgium to Lann Bihoué Naval Air Base in France, when it crashed between the towns of Pluvigner and Landaul at about 20 miles from Lorient in France, the BAF said on Twitter on Thursday.

The Belgian Air Force’s tweets in both Dutch and French (Belgium is a bilingual country).

“The pilot and co-pilot were able to eject themselves from their seats before the crash. One is being looked after by the emergency services and the second has his parachute caught on a 250,000 Volt high-voltage electricity line,” a police spokesman in Morbihan, Brittany, told CNN.

The police later confirmed that emergency services had been able to free the F-16 pilot who was stuck on the high-voltage power cable. Both pilots suffered light injuries and no injuries were reported among residents in the area, a police spokeswoman said.

The F-16 crashed only a few dozen yards from a house with some parts crashing into the roof of the house.
Photo of the F-16BM that crashed today in France. Photo: Belgian Air Force

The BAF F-16BM with registration FB18 was in service since 1983. It was completely modernized to the MLU (Mid-Life-Update) standard. The ‘M’ in F-16BM stands for ‘Mid-Life-Update’.

The crashed F-16BM in better times 10 years ago in 2009, wearing its markings from 2007, commemorating twenty years of the Operational Conversion Unit. Photo: Jerry Gunner on Flickr.

The crashed fighter jet was meticulously maintained according to the manufacturer. The cause of the accident is now under investigation.

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(Head image: Jim van de BurgtCC0 1.0)

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