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Youtube/Piceno time

Italian Air Force jets collide and crash into forest below

A total of four crew members were on board.

TWO ITALIAN AIR force fighter jets carrying a total of four crew members collided during a training mission over Italy and crashed into a hilly, wooded area that erupted in flames, the force said.

It wasn’t immediately known whether the two pilots and two navigators managed to eject from the Tornado jets. The collision occurred over east-central Italy, and an air search was being conducted for them, the air force said.

A Civil Protection official, Susanna Balducci, told Sky TG24 TV there were no civilian casualties on the ground after the crash in woods near the town of Ascoli.

Balducci said a firefighting helicopter was trying to extinguish the blaze, whose flames and dark smoke were visible for kilometers.

Witnesses quoted in Italian news reports said they saw two military planes flying low near Ascoli, then heard a crash and saw flames.

Read: Over 40 feared dead in plane crash near Taiwan airport >

Read: Why were commercial planes still flying over Ukraine? >

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18 Comments
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    Mute jonathan masterson
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    Aug 19th 2014, 7:43 PM

    A horrible year for aviation

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    Mute beachcomber
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    Aug 19th 2014, 7:48 PM

    All the more reason people shouldn’t take defying gravity for granted.

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    Mute Superguy
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    Aug 19th 2014, 8:00 PM

    Must have been a hijacking.

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    Mute Richard Cynical
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    Aug 19th 2014, 9:25 PM

    Goose!!!!

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    Mute Steven Hillert
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    Aug 20th 2014, 12:44 PM

    Go and play with your crayons and leave the adults to talk that’s a good boy. Ya dick head

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    Mute Sean
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    Aug 19th 2014, 7:48 PM

    Hopefully they have ejected.

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    Mute Niall o' Sullivan
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    Aug 19th 2014, 10:03 PM

    I’m just back from Italy. I was staying along the Amalfi coast when I forest fire broke out. It was on a mountainside, densely populated and totally inaccessible by anything wider than a small singular car. Within a half hour 6 helicopters appeared including two huge and, seemingly, military ones. They’d fly over the water at a height of about 10 to 15 feet, scoop up the water, and fly the few hundred yards to dump it on the flames. This went on from early morning until about 6pm. Amazing display of skill.

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    Mute Stephen Earle
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    Aug 19th 2014, 10:54 PM

    And ate pizza at the same time

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    Mute Sean
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    Aug 19th 2014, 11:02 PM

    I do not see why when it is military aircraft people make jokes, but when the story is about civilian aircraft people are very serious, and have a no nonsense attitude to people who try to make jokes. The pilots in these aircraft are human too? What makes them different? Why do people make jokes about it?

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    Mute Thierry Rat
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    Aug 19th 2014, 8:14 PM

    Whatta Bigga messa

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    Mute Thierry Rat
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    Aug 19th 2014, 8:25 PM

    Captain schettino again??

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    Mute Ablitive
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    Aug 19th 2014, 9:36 PM

    Italy had a previous serious accident involving low flying maneuvers..

    .Cavalese cable car disaster (1998)

    http://www.worldcrunch.com/eyes-on-the-u.s./exclusive-classified-documents-show-u.s.-full-responsibility-for-1998-italy-ski-gondola-disaster-/c5s3448/#.U_O1FsVdU8o

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    Mute Mick Rooney
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    Aug 19th 2014, 11:31 PM

    Are you planning on pinning this air accident on the Americans as well, Frank?

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    Mute Harold Steptoe
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    Aug 19th 2014, 9:25 PM

    Were they waving at each other.

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    Mute Robert Beatty
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    Aug 19th 2014, 8:42 PM

    what a mistake a to make

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    Mute Hugo Russell
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    Aug 19th 2014, 8:19 PM

    How does this happen?

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    Mute Ben Dover
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    Aug 19th 2014, 9:26 PM

    Seagulls

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    Mute adrian quinn
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    Aug 20th 2014, 5:06 AM

    Well they hardly crashed into the forest above

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