CARSON CITY, Nev., March 3 (UPI) -- Investigators were trying to determine what caused an F/A-18C jet fighter to crash during a weekend training flight in Nevada, killing the pilot, the Navy said.
The name of the pilot killed in the Saturday afternoon crash east of Naval Air Station Fallon was being withheld until the victim's family had been notified, the (Carson City) Nevada Appeal reported. The debris field was found Sunday morning.
"It took Navy personnel several hours to reach the crash site as it was located in remote, rugged, mountainous terrain," Lt. Reagan Lauritzen, a public affairs officer with the Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet in San Diego, told the newspaper. "A snow storm overnight in the area also hindered the effort."
The initial assessment of the downed aircraft, which was not carrying weapons or munitions, was that it was "a total loss," she said.
