Developing Story: Local News Updating Reports of “Jet Crash”.
Reports that an “F-16” has crashed in the White Sands area near Holloman AFB in New Mexico have surfaced in local news media. A report by journalist Drew Patrick of KFOX14/kfoxtv.com said that, “A jet crashed Tuesday on Highway 70 near Holloman Air Force Base”.
A separate post on Facebook showed an image of a text communication that appears to be from an official communication saying, “pilot ejected safely”. The source of the information has not been verified by U.S. Air Force public affairs.
Initial social media and news reports did not specify the type of aircraft or the organization it may have been affiliated with, but credible sources have now specified the aircraft as an “F-16”.
Holloman AFB is home to the 54th Fighter Group that is assigned to the 49th Wing of the Air Education and Training Command. The 54th Fighter Group operates a significant F-16 school that teaches tactics and operations to pilots from other locations.
(Image: Tom Demerly/TheAviationist.com)
Highway 70 is the major two-lane road leading northeast/southwest through the region. The White Sands National Park is located approximately 10 miles southwest of Holloman AFB, which lies southwest of the city of Alamagordo, New Mexico.
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The desert south of Alamagordo is named for the bright white, sugary sand that is the centerpiece of the National Park. The area farther southwest along Highway 70 is home to the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range, a massive test and training range that opened in 1941 and went on to include the Trinity Test Range, where the first U.S. nuclear weapons tests were conducted at the height of the Manhattan Project in 1945.
Details about this story will be updated as they become available.
