Plane damaged (Archive)
Photo: Oren Agmon, IDF Spokesman's Office
Female flight cadet bails out of IDF plane
Flight course's first religious female cadet lightly hurt after losing control of aircraft during her first solo flight; plane damaged
Close call: A female cadet in the IDF's flight course sustained light wounds Thursday morning after bailing out of her aircraft during her first solo flight.
An initial debriefing led by the IDF Flight School commander revealed that the flight cadet lost control of the training plane a short while before landing. She then decided to bail out in line with procedure.
The plane continued to travel on the landing strip and was damaged, but not heavily.
The flying cadet, who is the course's first religious female trainee, has been a member of the Air Force's combat track for a year and a half now, considered a long period of time. Many cadets are dismissed from the course in earlier stages.
Following the mishap, Air Force Commander Ido Nehushtan ordered the establishment of an investigative team to be headed by a colonel that would look into the accident.
Meanwhile, Nehushtan also ordered to ground all aircraft of the type involved in the accident for the time being. The move's objective is to ensure that the mishap was not the result of a technical failure.
The plane in question, Efroni, only recently replaced the veteran Tzukit as a training plane. The previous aircraft did not have an ejection seat.
