Two killed as F1-11 crashes

The pilot and navigator of a US F1-11 warplane were killed when their aircraft disintegrated in a fireball at RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire.

The aircraft skimmed the road outside the airfield, sliced the tops off a set of landing lights and ploughed through a hedge on the base before hitting the runway and exploding.

The two crew, who were returning from a routine mission, ejected, but one died on the field and the other in the base's medical centre. Earlier this year an F1-11 crashed at Finmere, three miles from the airfield, after take-off. The crew ejected safely.