Two Jordanian pilots killed in plane crash

Routine flight developed unspecified ‘technical fault’ near the Syrian border

16 May 2013, 5:07 pm 1

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Illustrative photo of two F-16 Royal Jordanian Air Force jets (photo credit: CC BY-SA 3.0, by Caycee Cook, US Air Force, Wikimedia Commons)

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan’s military says a trainer jet has crashed near the Syrian border, killing its two Jordanian pilots.

A spokesman says the British-made aerobatic T-67 Firefly trainer was on a routine flight early Thursday west of King Hussein Air College, a Royal Jordanian Air Force base in the border town of Mafraq, when it developed an unspecified “technical fault.”

The spokesman demanded anonymity under army regulations.

The base is believed to house 3,000 Syrian army and police defectors and 200 U.S. troops dispatched recently to bolster Jordan’s border defenses against potential Syrian threats.

The base is also believed to be the site where U.S. experts are training secular Syrian opposition fighters seeking to topple Bashar Assad. It is in a military zone that is off limits to the public.