Eight French soldiers and two Greek were killed when a bomber F16 Greek crashed during some exercises against other aircraft on a training center for elite pilots NATO Spain .
The accident took place at around 15.15 local air base of Los Llanos, in the province of Albacete, 250 km southeast of Madrid, which is used as a training center for pilots Atlantic Alliance and where they are parked aircraft from various countries.
The Greek plane, built-in Tactical Leadership Programme a NATO program aimed at improving multinational cooperation in air operations, “proceeded to perform an exercise when during take-off has slowed,” the Spanish ministry statement.
Out of his career, finished “it crashing into the parking of airplanes crashing into some aircraft were stationed there,” he said.
The accident affected, at least, to five aircraft, the French Mirage type and Alpha-Jet Italians, said later.
Television pictures showed thick black smoke rising from the remains of at least one unit in flames as firefighters and rescuers came to the area cordoned off.
It was necessary to put out the fire before it can estimate the number of victims and “assess the damage that may have occurred in other NATO aircraft,” the ministry Spanish.
“It seems that there are two people who have died are of Greek nationality and eight French,” he said at 21H00 (20H00 GMT) head of government, the Conservative Mariano Rajoy, interviewed live on the private television channel Telecinco.
“I’ve been talking to the Minister of Defence, we have made throughout the afternoon (…) there are many injured people, I talk about ten French, eleven Italians, “he said, adding that it was too early to be definitive data.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defense of France confirmed the death toll.
‘Tragedy’ for NATO
Five of the injured were taken to Madrid for treatment in major burn unit of the hospital in La Paz. The rest were admitted to the University Hospital of Albacete, the ministry said.
The Chief of Staff of the Air, Francisco Javier Garcia Arnaiz, accompanied by members of the Committee on Technical Accident Investigation Military Aircraft was the first to move to Los Llanos to follow the developments, the ministry said.
He followed the Spanish defense minister, Pedro Morenés, and Rajoy announced on Tuesday it would also Minister French and probably the Italian Minister.
“This is a tragedy for the family of NATO,” said for his part, Secretary General of NATO, Norway Jens Stoltenberg, declaring himself “deeply saddened” in a statement released from Brussels.
“I express my deepest condolences to the relatives and the nations of those who lost their lives and wish a quick recovery to the wounded,” he said.
Also Rajoy had declared “moved by the tragic accident at the air base of Los Llanos” in a broadcast message shortly after the tragedy in his official Twitter account.
According to the website Based in Los Llanos, it hosts since 2010 a training center for NATO. “It is a flying school that welcomes ten different countries,” said a ministry spokesman.
The center, whose training for fighter pilots is considered one of the most reputable and most demanding in the world, trains pilots in several specialties, including electronic warfare, reconnaissance and aerial combat.
No comments:
Post a Comment