Air crash cancels US-Bulgaria war games

A Bulgarian fighter jet crashes in southern Bulgaria during a flight training drill with the United States, forcing the country to cancel planned military exercises with the US Air Force (USAF). Bulgarian Defense Minister Anyu Angelov said on Thursday that the MiG-29 jet went down near the village of Golyam Chardak, about 160 kilometers east of the capital Sofia, adding that both pilots had ejected safely, DPA reported. Nobody was reported injured on the ground, he said. The joint exercises with the USAF’s 31st Fighter Wing, based in Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy, had been scheduled for Friday. After the incident, the military grounded all of its flights apart from the emergencies until the cause of the crash is established.