Two F-15C Eagles crashed into the Gulf of Mexico during a training mission. The Air Force reported that the pilots were ejected and later rescued. Eglin Air Force Base spokeswoman Shirley Pigott said that the pilots were rescued after their single-seat F-15C Eagles disappeared Wednesday afternoon off the Florida Panhandle, about 35 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base. The Air Force has not determined if the planes collided because the weather in the area was clear.

A Coast Guard rescue jet located one pilot and radioed the location to a fishing vessel, which picked him up. A Coast Guard helicopter then hoisted the pilot off the vessel. That pilot told rescuers he saw the other pilot also eject, but lost him in the clouds”, Coast Guard Petty Officer James Harless reported.

“He told them the approximate location for the second pilot, who was found by a Coast Guard helicopter”, Harless added.