Mystery surrounds F-16, pilot in Iraq crash

[spindrifter]

By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, November 29, 2006

The pilot of an F-16 that crashed Monday in Iraq’s Anbar province is officially listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown, as defense officials confirmed that the plane — though not the pilot — was assigned to a squadron deployed to Iraq from New Mexico.

Pentagon officials have not confirmed broadcast reports and video and still images apparently showing the pilot’s body and parachute on the ground. The pilot’s body was apparently removed before U.S. forces arrived on the scene after the crash, officials said Tuesday.

Air Force officials at Central Command said they had seen a video from Al-Jazeera showing what was “purported to be the pilot’s body,” but the military said they could not authenticate or validate the footage.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that videotape footage obtained by AP Television News appears to show the wreckage of a U.S. single-seat F-16CG jet in the farm field where it crashed Monday and the remains of an American serviceman with a tangled parachute nearby.

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