US fighter jets involved in deadly training accident in New Mexico

US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons sitting on the tarmac (AFP file photo)

The US Air Force has launched an investigation into a training “mishap” that killed one airman and injured another.

The incident happened on Tuesday near Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico, when two F-16 Fighting Falcons fired an air-to-surface ordnance “on an active weapons range,” according to a statement by the base.

According to the statement, the training went awry and the ground-control party, which is tasked with providing guidance to military planes during training, was struck.

The injured airman was released from hospital after being treated for unspecified injuries.

The identities of the victims were not released. The statement did not identify the pilots either.

The air base said that the two F-16s were based at Holloman but belonged to another fighter wing based in Arizona.

The range was part of the White Sands Missile Range complex, a vast testing area where the US carried out its first atomic bomb test in 1945.

Entering service in the late 1970s, the Fighting Falcon is a multi-role fighter that can drop bombs and fire missiles. The aircraft has single and twin seat variants.

Hours before the mishap in New Mexico, four soldiers were injured after a helicopter crashed on the border between the two states of Tennessee and Kentucky.

The high number of crashes and mishaps involving military aircraft has worried American military officials.

Between October 2014 and April 2016, the US Navy sustained a total loss of over $1 billion in damage caused by fighter jet accidents, according to data by the Naval Safety Center.

General John Paxton, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, warned during a Senate hearing last year that American pilots were getting inadequate training due to a severe lack of funding.