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Officials investigated yesterday how a fighter jet crashed during Nato training exercises at an air force base in Spain, killing 11 military personnel and leaving others with serious burns.
Nine French and two Greek personnel died and about 20 people were injured after the two-seater F-16 crashed into parked aircraft at the Los Llanos base in southeastern Spain.
The jet lost power as it took off and crashed on Monday, damaging five other aircraft, the Spanish defence ministry said.
Firefighters rushed to the scene and battled the flames as black smoke billowed from the wreckage.

Two Greek pilots on board and eight French officers were confirmed killed on Monday and the ministry said a ninth Frenchman died in hospital in Madrid yesterday.
A judge in the eastern city of Valencia was leading an investigation of the accident.
A technical commission was also probing the causes and was set to examine the wreckage and the plane's black box recorders, a defence ministry source said.
The base, near the city of Albacete, hosts elite exercises run by Nato to train military personnel from 10 nations to carry out joint manoeuvres.
Two pilots, a navigator and five mechanics were among the French personnel killed, the head of the French air force chiefs of staff Denis Mercier told BFM television.
Nine French personnel and 11 Italians were injured, Spanish officials said.
It was the highest death toll in a single day for the French armed forces since an ambush in Afghanistan in which 10 died in 2008. Of those injured, five of the French were in "serious but stable condition" in hospital and four had been discharged, said defence ministry spokesman Manuel Vazquez.
French President Francois Hollande "expressed his deep respect for the commitment" of the airmen who were preparing for air force missions to fight "against terrorist groups" in Iraq and the African Sahel region.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was "deeply saddened" by the disaster.


11 military officers die in fighter jet crash during Nato exercises in Spain

Smoke rises after a Greek F-16 jet fighter crashed during Nato training at Albacete air base in Spain on Monday. Photo: Reuters

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Officials investigated how a fighter jet crashed during Nato training exercises at an air force base in Spain, killing 11 military personnel and leaving others with serious burns.
