Air Force Training Jet's 375-Mile Hop Ends in Tragedy

An Air Force training jet flying from Mississippi to Florida never made it to its destination. Per a statement from the 14th Flying Training Wing, a T-38 trainer aircraft that took off from Columbus Air Force Base on Friday with two people on board, headed for Tallahassee, crashed into the woods near Alabama's Montgomery Regional Airport, the New York Times reports. Officials say both of the people on board were killed when the plane went down around 5:30pm.

The Air Force says the pilots, whose names haven't yet been released, were flying in a training mission, per WSFA. The Times notes the T-38 aircraft is used to train pilots to fly fighter and bomber planes. Marshall Taggart Jr., executive director of the Montgomery airport, tells the outlet that even though there are homes in the area where the plane crashed, no structures were hit. He adds that commercial flights continued uninterrupted after the crash, CNN reports. The 14th Flying Training Wing says a safety investigation board will be looking into the accident. (More Air Force stories.)