F-16 and Cessna plane collide over South Carolina | Washington Examiner

Investigators are converging on an area near Charleston, S.C., where an F-16 crashed Tuesday after colliding with a civilian Cessna airplane around 11:30 a.m. ET.

“There has been a midair collision between a Cessna C 150 aircraft and a F 16 fighter aircraft 11 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina at about 11 am today. No further information is available at this time”, announced the Air Force, according to ABC News.

A witness reported that the military plane broadsided the smaller Cessna, said Berkeley County Coroner Bill Salisbury.

Linda Tyler, a Lewisfield Plantation resident who lives near the location of the crash, told Reuters that she heard a “kaboom” before authorities swarmed into her community.

An Air Force official says the pilot of a crashed F-16 fighter jet has been taken to a base in South Carolina for observation. The Cessna’s fuselage has been located and the Coast Guard is assisting in the search for the pilot, CBS reported.

F-16s from Shaw Air Force Base, about 35 miles east of Columbia, do routinely fly training missions over eastern South Carolina and the Atlantic. Most models weigh about 1,500 pounds when fully fueled.