Pilot missing as 2 Saudi Air Force jets crash

RIYADH: An F-15 fighter jet and a Hawk trainer jet of the Royal Saudi Air Force have crashed separately and the pilot of one is still missing, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Monday, quoting an official source at the Ministry of Defense.
The F-15, which took off from King Abdulaziz Air Base, was on a routine training mission Sunday night in the Eastern Region when it crashed on Saudi territorial waters.
Search parties had been launched to locate the ill-fated plane's pilot, Fahad Bin Faleh Al-Msarir, said the report.
In the second incident, an aircraft of the Saudi Hawks Team, also on a routine training mission, was approaching the runway at King Faisal Air Base in the northwestern province of Tabuk when it crashed due to a technical glitch, said another SPA report.
"The source added that the pilot was able to use parachute and survived. He was taken to the hospital," the report said.
Technical teams have been formed to investigate the causes of the twin accidents, it added.