Air Force planes collide, but crews safe

Two Air Force training planes collided Wednesday during flights over eastern Mississippi and crashed, but all four crew members ejected safely, an Air Force spokesman said.

The T-6A Texan II primary trainers collided around midday and crashed near a Columbus Air Force Base auxiliary airfield in Shuqualak, a wooded area about 10 miles from the Alabama line, said 2nd Lt. Craig Rasley, a base spokesman.

Air Force investigators are probing the cause of the crash of the turboprop planes, Rasley said.

The Air Force's first T-6As went into service in 2000 and cost about $4.3 million apiece. The two-seat, single-engine planes can reach 320 mph, according to the Air Force.

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On the Net:

T-6A Texan II: http://www.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID124

(This version corrects that the planes were single-engine turboprops, not jets.)