F15Cs collide

An Air Force fighter pilot died Wednesday after two F-15C jets collided during a training exercise over the Gulf of Mexico, according to Air Force officials.

The planes were from the 33rd Fighter Wing, a combat-flying unit out of Eglin Air Force Base, near Pensacola, Florida.
 
A spokesman for the wing said the pilot died after having been rescued by a fishing boat and transported to the hospital at the base. The pilot of the other jet was also rescued and was listed in good condition, he said.
 
The crash happened at about 3 p.m., about 50 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base which is in Panama City, Florida.
 
Capt. Jim McPherson of the Coast Guard told CNN the crew of a Coast Guard aircraft on a training mission spotted a parachute dropping into the Gulf Wednesday afternoon.
  
The crew used radar and an automated identification system to detect a fishing boat in the area and directed that boat to the area where the parachute landed.
 
The Air Force was not identifying the pilots late Wednesday -- with wing commander Col. Todd Harmer saying only that both had been "assigned to the wing for quite some time."
 
He said the Air Force will convene a board of officers to investigate the crash and determine its cause.