Aurora – A Navy jet rolled into the side of a building at Buckley Air Force Base during a refueling stop day, but the pilot was not injured, the military said.
“The fighter aircraft had hydraulic failure while taxiing from the runway,” Buckley spokesman John Spann said. “The plane’s there, everyone is safe and we’re now looking at the building structure.” The pilot was taken to a hospital on base as a routine precaution, Spann said.
The F/A-18C Hornet was returning to its home base at Oceana, Va., from a training detachment in Fallon, Nev., Navy spokesman Mike Maus said.
The extent of the damage was not immediately known and the cause of the incident was under investigation, Maus said. The pilot’s name was not released.
Maus said the plane, one of three returning to Oceana from Fallon, was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 106.
Buckley houses a number of F-16 jets of the Colorado Air National Guard’s 140th Wing, but apparently none were involved in day’s mishap.
On Tuesday, a National Guard pilot from Buckley suffered bruises and a sprained ankle when he ejected from his F-16 during an emergency landing at Lamar Municipal Airport about 150 miles southeast of Denver.
The unarmed F-16 was on a routine training mission when a warning light indicated a fire in the tail section. Investigators were focusing on possible engine failure and loss of hydraulics in that accident.
