US military planes crash in Iraq

The Hornets were flying from the USS Carl Vinson carrier

At least one US Marine Corps pilot has died and another is missing after two F/A-18 Hornet jets crashed in Iraq.

The planes are thought to have been involved in a mid-air collision in bad weather on Monday evening, reports say.

A US military spokesman said the planes had been flying too high to have been shot down by hostile fire.

The search is continuing for the second pilot whose condition is not known. The planes were operating from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

A brief military statement did not say whether either of the jets had been found or where the pilot's body had been recovered.

The Hornet is the US Navy's main carrier-borne strike aircraft and is capable of multiple roles: air-to-air fighter, ground attack or reconnaissance.