Two Air Force pilots escaped injury this week when their T-38 Talon jet belly landed at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph.
Details about the incident were unclear, but the 12th Flying Training Wing said in a brief statement that the twin-engine, supersonic aircraft touched down without its landing gear on the base's east runway.
The Air Force did not say if the accident was believed to have been triggered by mechanical failure of some kind or possibly human error, but a 12th Flying Training Wing spokeswoman, Bekah Clark, said the pilot in command of the jet declared an in-flight emergency. The pilots were not identified.
The incident occurred at 10:30 a.m. Monday, but the wing did not send a release to media outlets advising than an accident had occurred, a routine practice of military public affairs offices.
A notice about the crash was initially posted on the wing's website at 11:10 a.m. Monday and updated Tuesday morning.
The Randolph-based aircraft didn't carry dummy bombs and cannot dump fuel. After it landed, it slid down the runway, but Clark didn't say how far it went before stopping. First-responders were called to the scene after the plane landed, but no water or foam was used, she said.
Damage was still being determined. Flying operations resumed Tuesday on the east runway, one of two at Randolph.
The accident is the first at Randolph in 10 years. In that crash, a T-38 with two instructor pilots went down March 19, 2003 while making a touch-and-go landing after the right tire gave way. The left tire then collapsed as the pilot tried to control the plane.
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