Monday March 26 2:33 PM ET
Two Pilots Die in U.S. Army Plane Crash in Germany

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Two U.S. pilots were killed Monday when their army RC-12 plane crashed southwest of the southern German town of Nuremberg, local police said.

A German police officer in the nearby Bavarian town of Schwabach said the two pilots died when their aircraft crashed shortly before 4 p.m. in an unpopulated forested area near the town.

The officer could not give any further details and said military police were now handling the accident, adding that the crash zone had been cordoned off.

The U.S. Army in Europe, which has its headquarters in the southwestern town of Heidelberg, earlier declined to comment, saying only that German and American rescue authorities were at the scene and an investigation into the cause of the accident was being conducted.

The army said the pilots were conducting a training flight in the modified C-12 twin-engine propeller aircraft, which was assigned to the 205th Military Intelligence Brigade based at Wiesbaden near Frankfurt.

Tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers are stationed in Germany as part of NATO forces.

Earlier Monday, two U.S. F-15 fighters went missing on a low-flying training mission over the Scottish Highlands from their base at Lakenheath in eastern England.

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.

Friday two German aircrew were killed when their Tornado plane crashed during a training exercise involving aircraft from allied countries near the Nellis U.S. Air Force base in Las Vegas, officials said Sunday.

The cause of the crash over USAF ranges about 100 miles north-east of the Nellis base was not known. German investigators were due to arrive at the base Monday.

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