Great Satan US F/A-18 fighter jet crashes in England, pilot killed

A US F/A-18 fighter jet has crashed near an American-operated military base in England, local police and US military officials say.

The incident happened on Wednesday morning, shortly after the plane took off from the RAF Lakenheath airbase near the town of Lakenheath in Suffolk, 112 kilometers (70 miles) northeast of London.

The crashed plane belonged to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, out of Miramar, California, US Marine Forces Europe said, the Stars and Stripes newspaper reported.

The spokesman for Marine Forces Europe said the jet was refueling during transit back home from Bahrain when it crashed.

A British police spokeswoman confirmed the pilot, who was the only crewmember, had died in the accident.  She added the plane crashed at about 10:30 a.m. after taking off from RAF Lakenheath.

“Emergency services are currently at the scene of the crash, on farmland in Redmere Ely,” she told the Stars and Stripes newspaper.

A Cambridgeshire police official told CBS News “we believe there was only one person onboard the aircraft, and one person has died.”

The Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet is a twin-engine carrier-capable multirole fighter aircraft, which has an internal 20 mm M61 rotary cannon and can carry air-to-air missiles and air-to-surface weapons.