Air Force training plane slightly damaged during emergency landing after malfunction
Military says it is investigating cause of technical issue that arose during routine practice flight in southern Israel
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
An Israeli Air Force training aircraft made an emergency landing in southern Israel on Sunday due to a technical malfunction during a routine practice flight, the military said.
The military said the T-6 Texan II plane sustained light damage during the landing at Hatzerim Airbase.
There were no injuries in the incident, which was to be investigated further, the military added.
The emergency landing Sunday came after two incidents in the IAF during an Independence Day flyby last week.
An F-35 fighter jet hit a bird during the flyby, whereupon the stealth plane landed at a base in southern Israel, and an attack helicopter pulled out of the event due to a technical fault and landed in open ground near Kibbutz Ga’ash in central Israel.
The F-35 did not make an emergency landing. There were no injuries in either incident.
In November 2020, a small Grob G 120 trainer plane crashed in southern Israel, killing Cpl. Lihu Ben-Bassa, 19, and his trainer, Maj. (res.) Itay Zayden, 42. The IDF said the aircraft stalled during a low-altitude maneuver, likely not as a result of a technical failure.
