Military plane crashes near Albuquerque airport, pilot hospitalized after ejecting

CNN
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A military plane crashed Tuesday afternoon near Albuquerque's main airport and a U.S. Air Force base, and the pilot — having ejected before the crash — was dispatched to the hospital with serious injuries, central New Mexico officials said.

The plane “crashed off the airfield” on the south side of Albuquerque International Port, the airport in New Mexico's most populous city said on social media. The crash site, which was reported shortly before 2 p.m. MT, is also near Kirtland Air Force Base.

The pilot ejected from the craft before the crash and was found conscious and breathing, Bernalillo County Fire Department spokesman William Harris said. The pilot was “transported with serious injuries,” said Albuquerque Fire Department Lt. Jason Fejer.

The pilot was the sole occupant of the plane, the airport said. Details on the type of plane involved, the destination and point of origin of the craft and what led to the crash were not immediately available. The name of the pilot was not immediately released.

Kirtland Air Force Base and the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the crash, Fejer said.

Footage from the Bernalillo County Fire Department and CNN affiliate KOAT showed mangled and blackened wreckage on a desert landscape outside the airport. Bernalillo County firefighters extinguished a fire at the crash site.

Two civilians were evaluated at the scene, but neither was taken to hospital, Fejer said, without specifying why they were evaluated.