Monday March 26 2:13 PM ET
Fears Grow for Missing U.S. F-15 Fighters

LONDON (Reuters) - Hopes were fading Monday for the crew of two U.S. F-15 fighters hours after they went missing on a low-flying training mission over the Scottish Highlands.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. airbase at Lakenheath, eastern England, from which the two jets flew said that flying staff were ``very concerned'' about their fate.

Only hours later, military officials in Germany said a U.S. Army C-12 plane crashed southwest of the southern German town of Nuremberg, killing the two pilots on board.

The U.S. Army in Europe, which has its headquarters in the southwestern town of Heidelberg, said the aircraft crashed shortly before 4 p.m. in an unpopulated forested area near the Bavarian town of Schwabach, south of Nuremberg.

The army said the pilots were conducting a training flight in the twin-engine propeller aircraft, which was assigned to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade based at Wiesbaden near Frankfurt. There was no ammunition on board, the army said.

In Scotland, rescue workers were increasingly pessimistic over the fate of the two F-15 pilots after reports of an explosion in a mountainous area close to the planes' flight path.

As rescuers continued to scour the remote Scottish hillsides, Major Stacee Bako at the planes base in Lakenheath, eastern England, told Reuters: ``We have heard no new news. We of course are hoping that our pilots are alive.''

She added: ``We want them back and this is one of those situations where we have to wait and see what the rescue teams find.''

Contact was lost on both radar and radio as the powerful jets undertook a training flight from Lakenheath.

Royal Air Force spokesman Michael Mulford told Reuters: ``As each hour and minute goes by, we are profoundly concerned about their fate.

``In search and rescue, one never says never, but at this point it is difficult to be anything but pessimistic.

``Someone has reported an explosion in the Cairngorms,'' he said. ``We now have two Nimrod aircraft, three helicopters, two RAF mountain rescue teams and several civilian teams all searching.''

The RAF later said a Tornado fighter-bomber fitted with heat seeking equipment had joined the search.

The spokesman said there were no reports of distress beacons. ``This is something of a mystery. We are very concerned about the fate of these two pilots as there is simply no trace,'' Mulford added.

Mulford told Reuters: ``Two F15 fighter-bombers left Lakenheath at 12:30 (1130 GMT) heading toward Scotland on a low-fly exercise with enough fuel for three hours.

``At 1315, they were on a routine switch between two military air traffic control points, one at RAF Leuchars, the other at RAF Lossiemouth. During the call, radar and radio contact was lost so a major search was mounted.

``Subsequently someone rang up and said they had heard an explosion in the area and timed it at 1315.''

The F-15, the U.S. Air Force's most effective fighter, is a twin-engine machine that serves as an air-superiority plane to shoot down enemy aircraft and as a versatile strike bomber.

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