US fighter jet pilot safely ejects before crash

An Oklahoma Air National Guard pilot managed to eject safely from an F-16 fighter jet before it crashed on Wednesday into a wooded area in southwest Louisiana, the Guard said in a statement. There were no reports of injuries on the ground after the crash, and the pilot suffered no severe injury, the statement said. The pilot's family identified him as Maj. Alexander Drummond, mission commander of the Tulsa-based 138th Fighter Wing of the Oklahoma Air National Guard. The pilot and aircraft were on a routine training mission out of Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.