Searchers find second missing jet

The two pilots were on a training exercise

Rescue teams searching for an American airman missing on a Scottish mountain have found the wreck of a second jet.

Two F15 fighters disappeared while on a training flight on Monday afternoon.

Search teams found the remains of one plane and the body of one of the pilots on Tuesday.

On Wednesday evening, Grampian Police named him as Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Hyvonen.

Michael Mulford: "Never say never"

The wreckage of the second aircraft, being piloted by Captain Kirk Jones, was discovered at about 1700 BST on Wednesday.

However, Capt Jones has not yet been found and poor weather conditions have been hampering the operation to find the pilot man near the summit of Ben Macdui, Scotland's second highest mountain.

The search has resumed on Thursday morning to find the body of the crewman.

Royal Air Force spokesman Michael Mulford said the wreckage of the second jet had been identified following the discovery of a section of its tail.

"It was lying some 400 yards or so from the wreckage of the first aircraft," he said.

"It is slightly higher up Ben Macdui and slightly to the north west."

He said the search was continuing, but admitted: "The difficulty is that it is extremely dangerous up there.

Now we know where the second aircraft is it takes us a considerable stage forward to working out what happened

Michael Mulford, RAF spokesman

"We have had avalanches, we have had very cold temperatures and snow."

Those involved in the search operation are now on their fourth day in these conditions.

"We have to be very careful about how we deploy them, but certainly now we know where the second aircraft is it takes us a considerable stage forward to working out what happened."

He said rescuers had to be realistic about the chances of the second pilot's survival, given that he would have spent three days in temperatures as low as -24C.

But he added: "You never say never."

Wreckage sighted

He said the main thrust of Thursday's search operation would be to find Capt Jones and then let investigators in to do their work on the cause of the crash.

It is strongly suspected that one aircraft followed the other into the mountain while flying in poor weather during a routine exercise.

The wreckage of the first jet was sighted roughly half a mile south east of Ben Macdui in the Cairngorms - close to the area where the last radar contact was made with the pilots' two F15C fighters on Monday afternoon.

Rescuers found the plane after following the scent of aviation fuel - and shortly afterwards they also discovered the body of Lt Col Hyvonen.

Wreckage was found in the Cairngorms

Both men were qualified F15 pilots and had taken off from Lakenheath air base in Suffolk, England, at 1230BST on Monday.

A spokeswoman for USAF Lakenheath said Lt Col Hyvonen was a member of the 48th Operations Support Squadron and Capt Jones was a member of the 493rd Fighter Squadron.

She said Lt Col Hyvonen had been in the USAF since 1984 and based at Lakenheath since 1999.

Capt Jones had been in the air force since 1997 and based at Lakenheath since 1999.

Accident investigators from the US Air Force were making their way to the Cairngorms on Wednesday.