A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jet crashed near the city of Trier in western Germany on Tuesday, October 8, the German air force told AFP, with the pilot surviving after using the ejector seat.
After multiple emergency calls around 3:15 p.m. local time (1315 GMT), emergency services reached the scene near the village of Zemmer, police said in a statement.
The pilot ejected from the aircraft and airman was taken to hospital, police said, adding that it was not immediately clear how seriously he was injured in the crash.
Authorities blocked off a large zone around the crash site including several roads, the police statement added, urging drivers to avoid the area.
A spokesperson for the U.S. military at nearby Spangdahlem Air Base told AFP he had no further information about the crash or its causes.
Military.com reported that the aircraft is from the 480th Fighter Squadron, and the pilot received minor injuries.
Germany is no stranger to military aircraft crashes, including in its own Bundeswehr armed forces.
In June this year, two Luftwaffe Eurofighter Typhoon jets crashed after colliding in mid-air in northeastern Germany. One of the pilots was killed, while the other ejected safely.
Less than a week later, a helicopter pilot died when his aircraft crashed near an army training center.
The last American military crash in Germany was in 2015, when one of the Spangdahlem base’s F-16 fighters went down in northern Bavaria. In that incident, the pilot survived after ejecting from the plane.
With reporting from AFP
