A crashed F-16 Fighting Falcon from the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona has been found, the wing said Thursday afternoon.
But there is still no word on the status of the jet's student pilot from Taiwan.
Base officials said the man with the Taiwanese Air Force was flying solo and engaged in air-to-air combat training with an instructor when his F-16 went down for still unknown reasons.
Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus, commander of the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke, said rescue crews on the ground have been unable to find the pilot, whose name wasn't released.
"All indications lead me to believe that the pilot did not survive the accident," Pleus said at a late afternoon news conference. "But until we have 100 percent confirmation, we will continue search efforts."
Pleus said the student pilot had been in a training program for the past six months at Luke, which is a major pilot-training base for the Air Force and foreign military services.
In a release, the 56th said local authorities found the crash site and notified the wing. Air Force officials are heading to the site to work with local authorities as they access and secure the site.
Senior Airman Jenna Bigham, a spokeswoman for the 56th, said the status of the pilot is unknown.Bigham said the jet crashed at about 8:45 a.m. local time north of Luke, near Bagdad, Arizona. The cause of the crash is also not yet known, she said.
Dwight D'Evelyn, a spokesman for the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office in Arizona, said in a phone interview that a Yavapai deputy sheriff flying a rescue helicopter spotted the crash site at about 12:40 p.m. local time, roughly four hours after the jet crashed. D'Evelyn said the sheriff's office got a tip from hunters in the area who saw a plume of smoke, which led officials to the crash site.
D'Evelyn said the jet crashed about 5 miles southwest of Bagdad in a very hilly area. He said the county sent ground crews in to contain the area, but were instructed by the Air Force to steer clear of the crash site due to possible hazardous materials. D'Evelyn said the deputy sheriff did not land the rescue helicopter at the crash site, and the sheriff's office had no information about the pilot.
"Luke AFB officials are working closely with local authorities in a search and rescue operation," Luke said in a news release Thursday afternoon. "Due to the remote location and rugged terrain, the status of the pilot is unknown."
56th Fighter Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Scott Pleus has set up an interim safety board to start the preliminary investigation into the crash, the release said.
The Fighting Falcon first flew in 1976 and is known for its maneuverability and capability in both air-to-air and air-to-ground combat. The F-16 played a key role in Operation Desert Storm, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War.
Contributing: The Associated Press
Stephen Losey covers personnel, promotions, and the Air Force Academy for Air Force Times. He can be reached at slosey@airforcetimes.com.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.
