BERLIN -- A U.S. Air Force attack jet crashed Friday in western Germany, injuring the pilot as he ejected to safety, authorities said.
A police spokesman from the city of Trier said the A-10 Thunderbolt went down near the town of Laufeld, between the former West German capital of Bonn and Trier. The spokesman, speaking on a departmental policy of anonymity, said the pilot has been hospitalized but had no further details.
The jet crashed in a field just a few hundred yards from Laufeld's residential area and the town's mayor, Karl-Josef Junk, told the German news agency DAPD that a catastrophe was "narrowly avoided."
The aircraft, also known as the Warthog, was part of the 81st Fighter Squadron at the Spangdahlem Air Base, in Rhineland Palatinate, said Senior Airman Nathanael Callon, a spokesman for the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem.
Callon confirmed the afternoon crash. "That is all the information we have at this time," he said.
The twin-engine A-10 is used to provide close air support for ground forces by attacking tanks and other targets.
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