German army Tornado plane crashes

17 Jan, 2014

BERLIN: A German army Tornado fighter plane crashed near the western city of Koblenz on Thursday, with both pilots ejecting to safety, local police said.

The Koblenz police said the pilots were slightly injured, but did not need hospital treatment, after the crash which left debris strewn around a main highway which was swiftly closed.

No one else was injured in the crash.

The plane crashed in a hilly region some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Koblenz and police, army and firefighting personnel were quickly at the scene.

Local paper Rhein-Zeitung carried pictures of one of the pilots caught in a tree with his parachute and reported that the plane went down in a wooded area at around 9:30 pm (2030 GMT) after taking off from a nearby air base.

Police gave no theory on the cause of the accident.

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