Ecuadorean military training jet crashes, 2 killed

An Ecuadorean air force training jet crashed in a jungle area near the Colombian border on Wednesday, claiming the lives of the pilot and a rescuer, officials said.

An Ecuadorean air force training jet crashed in a jungle area near the Colombian border on Wednesday, claiming the lives of the pilot and a rescuer, officials said. The Strikemaster MK-89 went down during a training mission about 112 miles (180 kilometers) east of the capital, Quito.

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The pilot and co-pilot managed to eject before the jet crashed, according to a statement from air force commander Gen Leonardo Barreiro.

The men were located by three military helicopters sent to the scene and the co-pilot was rescued. But the pilot and a member of the air force rescue team were killed when a cable snapped as they were being lifted to a helicopter, Barreiro said. "It is still not know why this occurred," the statement said.

The reason the plane crash has also not been determined. The crash is the second by a military plane in less than a week in Ecuador. Last Thursday, a small army plane slammed into an apartment building in the capital, killing five people aboard the plane and two on the ground.