An Air Force F-16 crashed Friday while attempting to take off from Hill Air Force Base during a routine test flight.

The $20 million plane is estimated to be a total loss. Hill spokesman Bill Orndorff said there's "not much left of it."The pilot, Capt. Bryan K. Nordheim, ejected and suffered only minor scrapes and bruises in the 11:50 a.m. crash, Senior Airman Katherine Garcia said.

There were no others on board.

The cause of the crash, which happened on a base flight-line, has not been determined and is under investigation by the Aircraft Inves-ti-ga-tion Board, Orndorff said.

View Comments

The F-16, which had been transferred from Moody Air Force Base in Georgia, had undergone maintenance at Hill before the crash.

The aircraft was assigned to Hill's 514th Test Squadron.

Five F-16s have crashed in Utah this year, though pilots ejected and suffered only minor injuries in the incidents.

On Jan. 7, two F-16s from the 421st Squadron collided in a war game exercise. Within a day, another plane from the same squadron crashed near Bonneville Salt Flats. And on March 23 an F-16, also from the 421st, veered off the runway.

Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.