Mysterious Air Force Crash Reportedly Involved a Foreign Plane

On September 5, a U.S. Air Force aircraft

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crashed at the Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR), killing the pilot. But even a week later, the Air Force has refused to reveal the type of aircraft involved in the incident. The hush-hush treatment has left many people wondering what the plane could be, and whether the Air Force is developing a new "black" aircraft that has not been declassified to the public.

However, sources tell Aviation Week that the pilot involved in the crash, Lt. Col. Eric Schultz, was a squadron commander of an Air Force unit that tests and evaluates foreign aircraft. If this is the case, the most likely explanation is that Schultz was piloting a foreign jet at the time of the crash.

Airmen who flight test foreign military planes, sometimes called Red Hats, are part of an unnumbered unit within Detachment 3 of the 53rd Test and Evaluation Group, stationed out of Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. A press release from Nellis indicates that the aircraft involved in the incident belonged to Air Force Material Command, which oversees Detachment 3 of the 53rd. Flight testing foreign jets was previously conducted by the 413th Flight Test Squadron and the 4477th Test and Evaluation Squadron before that.