The Air Force pilot who died in a crash near Montgomery, Alabama, was confirmed as 24-year-old Scot Ames Jr., an instructor pilot with the 50th Flying Training Squadron at Columbus Air Force Base in Mississippi.
Ames Jr. was killed with a student pilot from the Japanese Air Self Defense Force, whose name is being withheld by authorities, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. Ames Jr. was from Pekin, Indiana.
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The two pilots were based at Columbus, where the jet departed en route to Tallahassee, Florida. The aircraft was reported to be a two-seat T-38 jet, which is typically used by the Air Force and Navy for training purposes.
The jet crashed around 5 p.m. on Friday in a wooded, residential area near the Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama. It was assigned to the 14th Flying Training Wing at Columbus Air Force Base.
Col. Seth Graham, 14th Flying Training Wing commander, expressed his condolences in a Facebook post.
“Please keep the families of these Airmen in your thoughts and prayers. Losing teammates is unbelievably painful, but we will get through this together,” Graham said.
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Columbus Air Force Base is the first training ground for undergraduate pilots. At a press conference on Saturday, Graham said the base trains more than 350 pilots a year.
The cause of the crash is not yet known, and a safety board will investigate the crash.
