Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Tragic accident in Albacete

Two Greek pilots along with eight French citizens were killed and scores of people injured, seven of them seriously, when a Greek F-16 crashed at the Los Llanos air base in Albacete. The Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, confirmed in a television interview that no Spaniards were among the victims.

The incident occurred at about 3:18pm when the aircraft, participating in the Tactical Leadership Programm (TLP) NATO program (also known as School Improvement Pilot), fell to the ground shortly after takeoff.

The aircraft collided into five parked aircraft causing a major fire. The planes affected were French Mirage and Italian Alpha Jets.

The four week  NATO training program includes members from Greece, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain and the United States

This was the most serious incident involving military aircraft on Spanish soil since a US Hercules crashed in the province of Zaragoza during 1984 killing 18.

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