2 Pilots on Training Flight Killed When Navy Jets Crash

A pair of Navy training jets crashed today in a rural area, killing two pilots, officials said. Two other airmen ejected from the planes and were taken to a hospital.

The Navy did not say whether the two aircraft collided when the crash occurred at 9 a.m., about 50 miles north of the Meridian Naval Air Station. However, Lt. (j.g.) Mary Chamberlain, spokeswoman at the station, did confirm that the two planes were involved in a training mission at the time.

She said both planes went down in about the same area, near a highway bypass about seven miles south of Macon in rural east-central Mississippi. The names of the airmen were not released pending notification of relatives.