Washington - The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Cohen, yesterday ordered the military to briefly halt training flights and study safety in the wake of five US military air accidents since Saturday. The order, which followed a Pentagon parade celebrating the Defence Department's 50th anniversary, would allow the Air Force and other services to decide when to hold separate 24hour training "stand-downs" over the week beginning tomorrow.
Two fighters collided in a training accident off the New Jersey coast on Tuesday night. The three crewmen escaped injury in what was the fifth crash since the apparent collision of a C-141 with a German plane off Africa on Saturday. A Marine fighter crashed in North Carolina on Monday night, killing both crewmen. On Sunday, an Air Force stealth fighter went down at an air show near Baltimore and a Navy fighter crashed in Oman.