A US Air Force F-16 crashed on Tuesday at or near Spangdahlem Air Base in Rhineland-Palatinate, western Germany, during a training flight. The pilot ejected safely and is receiving medical treatment, while emergency crews responded to the scene and officials opened an investigation into the cause.
The aircraft was assigned to the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem, a key US Air Force hub in Europe that hosts F-16 operations. The crash occurred around 2:30 p.m. local time, and local authorities reported that one person was injured in the wider emergency response. Details on the extent of that injury were not immediately clear.
Fire and disaster response units were deployed to the site as smoke was reported in the area. The jet went down during an exercise involving several aircraft, according to early accounts, with the exact sequence of events still under review. The same air base was also the site of an F-16 crash in 2019, adding context to the latest incident at one of the US military’s most important aviation facilities in Europe.