Military Pilot Reportedly Ejected

An F-16 and a Cessna 150 have reportedly been involved in a mid-air collision over Berkeley County, SC Tuesday morning.

The accident is said to have occurred about 1100 EDT about 11 miles north of Charleston, according to FAA spokesman Jim Peters. The Post and Courier newspaper reports that Peters did not have any additional information about the pilots of the aircraft, or if anyone else was on board either airplane.

Television station WCBD reports that a witness said that he saw the two planes collide and there was a "ball of fire in the air." NBC News reports that, according to Defense Department Officials, the military pilot was able to eject from his airplane before it went down.

According to the paper, there were two possible sites where the aircraft went down. One near Lewisfield Plantation, and the other at nearby Mulbery Plantation, and there are reports of wreckage on a roadway near an area known as Moncks Corner.

The paper reported that first responders were warned not to touch any of the airplane parts and stay upwind of the F-16 wreckage because of the potential for exposure to hydrazine from the military aircraft.

The home base of the F-16 is not yet known. Officials with the South Carolina Air National Guard said they did not think that the plane was one of theirs.

(Image from file, Not accident airplane)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.af.mil