A series of recent safety incidents prompted Israeli air force commander Major General Amir Eshel on 26 February to order a one-day suspension of all training flights at its bases.
The directive was issued to give flightcrews time to go through all required safety procedures, and did not apply to the service’s operational activities.
Eshel’s order followed a mid-February incident during which two Boeing F-15s came within close proximity of each other during a training flight. One of the pilots was sentenced to five days in jail for careless flying.
A similar incident also occurred on 25 February, when a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter and a Lockheed C-130 tactical transport also passed close to each other. In another previous case, a car was driven onto an active runway, shortly before a combat aircraft began its take-off run.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
