Pilot Killed in Crash of F-22 Fighter Jet

The pilot aboard an F-22 fighter jet that crashed near Edwards Air Force Base this morning was killed, the Los Angeles Times reports. The F-22 Raptor went down during a test mission, and it wasn't immediately clear if the 49-year-old pilot ejected; no word yet on the cause of the accident. President Obama is to decide by next month whether to buy more of the $140 million stealth jets from Lockheed Martin, notes Bloomberg.

“The timing isn’t great for the aircraft’s advocates, but I can’t imagine one crash being an effective argument against additional procurement,” said an analyst. “I can’t think of a modern-generation fighter that hasn’t crashed either in operational use or in testing.” (More Air Force stories.)