A California Air National Guard F-16 crashed Friday morning during a routine training flight. The pilot from the 144th Fighter Wing at Fresno safely ejected. The day before on the other side of the country, a T-38 from the training wing at Columbus AFB, Miss., crashed about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tenn. The student and instructor pilots both ejected safely.
The crash of a T-38 trainer jet this May—which caused a weekslong pause in flights across the fleet—was caused by an improperly installed pin for one of the jet’s horizontal stabilizers, according to a new accident report released Oct. 30. When the pin disengaged midflight, it created the slightest amount…