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NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — The Latest on the fighter jet plane that crashed at Nellis Air Force Base (all times local):
2:25 p.m.
The veteran pilot who ejected from a fighter jet after an exercise with a military weapons school at an Air Force base near Las Vegas has been released from the hospital.
A Draken International spokesman said that the pilot, who is not from the Las Vegas area, has been treated for minor injuries from the Thursday morning plane crash. Draken pilots are civilian contractors who role-play with the trainees by pretending to be enemy pilots.
The pilot had just finished a combat training exercise that typically lasts about an hour and a half when he self-ejected as he was returning to Nellis Air Force Base.
He was alone in the A-4 Skyhawk, a fixed wing single-engine aircraft built in 1970 and a fighter jet model used by the military in the Vietnam era.
No one else was hurt.
The other aircrafts in the exercise landed safely.
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10:15 a.m.
An official says a veteran pilot had just completed an exercise with a military weapons school at an Air Force base near Las Vegas when he ejected as the plane went down.
Draken International's Scott Poteet said Thursday that the pilot had just finished a combat training exercise that typically lasts about an hour and a half when he self-ejected as he was returning to Nellis Air Force Base.
The man who has more than two decades of fighter pilot experience was alone in a Skyhawk jet opposite Nellis' weapons school trainees early Thursday.
Draken pilots are civilian contractors who role-play with the trainees by pretending to be enemy pilots.
Poteet said the six-month weapons school is akin to "getting your Ph.D in flying."
The pilot was hospitalized with minor injuries.
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9:20 a.m.
Military officials and local police say an aircraft has crashed in a desert area near Nellis Air Force Base after the pilot ejected with minor injuries.
A base spokesman said the crash happened about 7:40 a.m. Thursday on public land adjacent to the base.
Tech. Sgt. Anthony Kuhn says the pilot ejected from a civilian contractor aircraft and was receiving medical treatment.
The type of aircraft wasn't immediately described.
The aircraft crashed less than a mile from the northern end of Nellis runways.
There was no immediate report of damage to any facilities on the ground.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor says the agency was notified that a military aircraft was involved. He said Nellis was handling the response.
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