The U.S. Navy says an F-18 fighter jet has crash landed at Bahrain International Airport and the pilot ejected from the aircraft after it “departed the runway.”
Cmdr. Bill Urban, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, said in a statement the pilot wasn’t hurt in the crash landing Saturday on the island nation.
Urban says the F-18 took off from the USS Nimitz, an aircraft carrier now in the Persian Gulf.
He says the F-18 suffered an engine problem and tried to divert to Sheikh Isa Air Base in Bahrain. He said the plane couldn’t make it and instead landed at the island’s commercial airport.
Urban said: “Due to the malfunction, the aircraft could not be stopped on the runway and the pilot ejected from the aircraft as it departed the runway.”
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Authorities say a US fighter jet has crash landed at Bahrain International Airport, disrupting flights to and from the island nation.
Social media pictures of the aircraft showed the grey fighter jet’s nose tipped into the air but largely intact.
Bahrain’s Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry identified the fighter jet as a “US military aircraft” in a statement.
It called the crash landing a “minor incident.” Flights to and from Bahrain were disrupted.
It wasn’t immediately clear which branch of the US military the aircraft belonged to, though Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet. Naval officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bahrain is an island off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf also home to an under-construction British naval base.
