JERUSALEM — The son of an Israeli astronaut who died in the space shuttle Columbia disaster six years ago was killed Sunday when his F-16 warplane crashed on a routine training flight, the Israeli military said.
The military identified the dead pilot as Capt. Assaf Ramon, son of Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first and only astronaut. One of seven crew members killed when the Columbia exploded in 2003, Ilan Ramon is seen as a national hero in Israel, and radio and TV stations broke into their broadcasts Sunday to report the news of his son’s death.
Ramon’s fighter jet crashed south of the West Bank city of Hebron. Air force commander Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan called an official inquiry and halted training in Israel’s F-16 squadrons “until further notice,” the military said in a statement. There was no immediate word on what caused the crash.
Ramon, 21, was the eldest of Ilan Ramon’s four children. He was 15 when his father, the payload specialist on the Columbia, was killed.
