- The Washington Times - Thursday, June 27, 2013

Two pilots in the middle of a training mission on Wednesday were forced to eject when their F-16 crashed into a field near Luke Air Force in Arizona.

The plane started to malfunction 45 minutes into the mission, said Co. John Hanna, an operations manager at the Glendale base, United Press International reported.

They flew into an arc to force the plane to lose momentum before ejecting, Col. Hanna said. The pilots weren’t seriously injured, though one complained of a back pain. Nobody on the ground was hurt, UPI reported.

Air Force officials are investigating the cause of the malfunction. But their results won’t be available to the public for at least 90 days, UPI said.

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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