Pilot killed after US F-18 jet crashes in England

LONDON (AP) – U.S. officials say the pilot of a U.S. military jet was killed when it crashed near a British air base Wednesday.

The U.S. Embassy in London said the plane was a supersonic F-18. The Air Force said it was investigating.

Cambridgeshire Police said the plane had taken off from the Lakenheath air base in eastern England. “There is believed to have been one person on board, and there has been one confirmed fatality,” the force said.

Cambridgeshire Fire Services said its crew was called to farmland in Redmere in Cambridgeshire, about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from Lakenheath, after reports of the crash.

The twin-engine F-18 Super Hornet comes in single-seat and two-seat versions.

A year ago, a U.S. Air Force F-15 crashed in a field near the air base. The pilot was not seriously hurt.

In January 2014 four U.S. Air Force crew members based at Lakenheath died when their helicopter hit a flock of geese and crashed during a training mission.