UK Coastguard Service Says Coordinating Response to US Fighter Jet Crash Off British Coast

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th June, 2020) Her Majesty's Coastguard, which is responsible for maritime search and rescue operations in the United Kingdom, told Sputnik on Monday that it was coordinating the response to the US fighter jet's crash in the North Sea near the UK coast.

Earlier in the day, the US Air Force said that its F-15C jet from the 48th Fighter Wing had crashed in the UK while on a routine training mission with one pilot on board.

"HM Coastguard is coordinating the response after reports were received of an aeroplane going down into the sea 74 nautical miles off Flamborough Head. The HM Coastguard helicopter from Humberside has been sent along with Bridlington and Scarborough RNLI lifeboats. Following a Mayday broadcast by HM Coastguard, other vessels nearby are heading to the area," Stuart Appleby of UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency said, noting that "it's believed the aircraft had one person on-board.

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At the same time, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a largest UK charity saving lives at sea, confirmed to Sputnik that it had sent two rescue vessels to the site of the US fighter jet's crash.

"We still have two boats out in the North Sea that were tasked by the Coastguard and those are from Scarborough and Bridlington. Those were tasked to 74 nautical miles off the coast," Jim Rice, the regional manager of North East and England for RNLI, said.

The cause of the crash and the status of the pilot currently remain unknown.