A U.S. military plane crashed near an airport in Alabama on Friday while on a training exercise, killing two people aboard, including a member of the Air Self-Defense Force, the Japanese Defense Ministry said Saturday.
The ministry said the ASDF officer, a first lieutenant in his 20s, died in the accident aborad the U.S. Air Force T-38 aircraft, which was about to land at Montgomery Airport. It was the first fatal crash involving an ASDF member training in the United States. An Air Force instructor also aboard the plane died.
The plane, which belonged to the Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi, went down in an area about 3 kilometers from the airport at around 5 p.m., according to the ministry.