DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230497

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 

DATELINE: EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF.    LENGTH:   35 lines

2 IN TRAINING JET DIE IN COLLISION WITH F-16 AT CALIFORNIA AIR BASE

A training jet collided with an F-16 fighter Wednesday over Edwards Air Force Base and crashed in the Mojave Desert, killing two crewmen - one British, one American.

The F-16, with two Americans aboard, landed safely on a dry lake bed at the base. Its crew was not hurt.

The two-seat training jet, a T-38 Talon, is used by pilots to learn supersonic techniques, aerobatics, formation and navigation. ``They did see a chute'' from the trainer, said Maj. Felecia Tavares, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

Edwards is in Southern California and home to the Air Force Test Pilot School, which tests military planes, including experimental aircraft, and is also a space shuttle landing site.

The collision happened just after 10 a.m. The planes were taking part in a practice bombing run by a B-1B bomber.

It also comes weeks after Defense Secretary William Cohen ordered all branches of the military to hold a 24-hour safety ``stand-down'' and review their training procedures after a rash of air crashes.

It was the first-ever suspension of all military pilot training. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS photos

The F-16, similar to this one, landed safely. The T-38 Talon

trainer, similar to the one shown below, carried an American and a

Briton. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE ACCIDENT MILITARY INJURIES

FATALITY

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