The death toll from the crash of a Greek F-16 fighter jet at a Spanish military base during an elite NATO pilot training program rose to 11 on Tuesday after one of the French airmen who suffered serious burns died at a Madrid hospital, Spain’s Defence Ministry said. The death came as Spanish investigators tried to determine what caused the jet to lose thrust as it took off and crash into five parked planes at the los llanos air base in southeastern Spain, triggering a series of explosions and a fire that took about an hour to put out.
Two pilots aboard the Greek F-16 were killed along with eight French air force members on the ground and the French airman who died on Tuesday, the Ministry said in a statement. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy promised his French and Greek counterparts “all the help my Government can give in clarifying the facts” of what went wrong.