JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian military jet crashed on a nighttime training mission on the main island of Java, killing its pilot.
The South Korean-made T-50i Golden Eagle was conducting tactical intercept training when it went down into bushes late Monday in Central Java province’s Blora district about an hour after taking off from Iswahyudi Air Base in the neighboring province of East Java, military spokesperson First Marshal Indan Gilang said.
The last contact between the jet and air base was at 07:25 p.m. Villagers found parts of the severely damaged jet in the bushes, and the pilot’s body was recovered from the crash site, Gilang said.
The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known.
The jet was one of 16 T-50i Golden Eagles developed by Korea Aerospace Industries with Lockheed Martin and received by the Indonesian air force in 2014. One of them crashed while performing in the Yogyakarta Airshow in 2015, killing the two pilots on board.
Indonesia’s defense ministry last year ordered six more of the T-50i Golden Eagle trainers from South Korea.
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