U.S. Marine pilot dies when plane crashes in England

LONDON — The pilot of a U.S. Marine Corps F-18 was killed Wednesday when the plane crashed after taking off from a British air base in eastern England, U.S. and British officials said.

The pilot was ejected from the single-seat aircraft after it went down near the British air force’s Lakenheath station, said Gunnery Sgt. Donald Bohanner at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, where the F/A-18C Hornet is stationed. No other casualties were reported.

The Marine Corps said the pilot’s identity was being withheld pending notification of his family.

The plane was an F-18C Hornet from the Marine Attack Fighter Squadron 232 based at the California air station, said a Marine Corps spokesman at the U.S. European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. The jet was one of six going from Bahrain to Miramar when it went down about 6 miles from Lakenheath airfield in eastern England, it added.

The other five planes were diverted to a nearby air base.

While the Lakenheath base is owned by the British air force, it has been under the operational control of the U.S. military for decades.

Cambridgeshire police said the jet crashed after it had taken off from Lakenheath.

“We can confirm one fatality and believe there was just one person on board the aircraft,” the Cambridgeshire Constabulary, the police agency responsible for the area, said in a statement.