WASHINGTON: A Royal Australian Air Force electronic warfare plane caughtfire on takeoff during an exercise in the United States Saturday but therewere no serious injuries, the military said.
Australia’s Department of Defense confirmed “an incident involving anEA-18G Growler at Nellis Air Force Base during Exercise Red Flag.”
It said RAAF personnel are safe “and no serious injuries have beensustained” during the incident which occurred in Nevada and is underinvestigation.
The EA-18G Growler, a variant of the F/A-18F Super Hornet, can fly into acombat zone before other aircraft, using its jammers to suppress grounddefenses ahead of a bomb strike.
A statement from Nellis Air Force Base said the “incident during takeoff”occurred at about 10:45 am (1845 GMT) Saturday.
“The aircraft was required to abort its takeoff and subsequently caughtfire. However, all personnel are safe,” the Nellis statement said withoutidentifying the plane as being from Australia.
Exercise Red Flag is an air-to-air combat training exercise involving theUnited States, Australia and Britain. – Agencies