Columbus Air Force Base officials have identified the student pilot killed in a plane crash Friday in Montgomery, Alabama.
Renshi Uesaki, 25, died after the T-38C Talon he and instructor pilot Scot Ames, 24, were flying from CAFB crashed at about 5:30 p.m. outside Dannelly Field in Montgomery, according to a CAFB press release. Uesaki was a student pilot from the Japan Air Self Defense Force, and was one of about 15 Japanese students currently in undergraduate pilot training at the base.
Ames was also killed in the crash.
The Air Force is investigating the cause.
CAFB Wing Commander Col. Seth Graham said it is common for pilots to fly cross-country training missions and night missions over the weekend. The pilots, he said, were on the first leg of a “two-leg” journey, though he did not have the final destination at a press conference held on base Saturday.
“In the near future, Columbus AFB will have a remembrance at the base to take an opportunity
to grieve together and with the families of those that were lost,” Graham said in a press release issued Monday. “In the long term, we will find ways to ensure their legacy lives on at Columbus.”
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