A BELGIAN F-16 fighter jet crashed in France, damaging a house, setting a field ablaze and leaving a pilot suspended for hours from a high-voltage electricity line.
Emergency workers rushed to try to safely free the officer after his parachute became tangled on the line in Brittany only after cutting off power to avoid him being electrocuted.
No injuries have been reported. Surrounding homes were evacuated as the pilot was being taken down and firefighters battled the blaze from the crash.
One of the plane’s wings sliced the roof and facade of a house in the town of Pluvigner, in Brittany, before plunging into a neighbouring farm field, said Ludovic Kauffer, who lives in the house.
Kauffer was at work at the time of the morning accident, but his parents were home and described to him the “booms” of the crash.
“My mother is in shock, my father is too,” he said.
“The most important thing is that everyone is OK.”
The plane was flying from Belgium to a naval air base in France when it came down between the towns of Pluvigner and Landaul, according to a statement from the regional prefecture, or administration.
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Two pilots were aboard, and both ejected before the crash. One was safely rescued but the other got stuck on the power line.
The plane itself was not armed, the statement said.
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