A Belgian F-16 fighter pilot has been rescued from a high-voltage electricity line after his jet crashed in Brittany, France.

The plane came down over the town of Pluvigner at about 10.30am local time on Thursday, narrowly missing a house. The two pilots were able to eject, with one safely picked up on the ground.

However, the other pilot’s parachute got caught on a 250,000-volt high-tension electricity line. Local media broadcast images of the pilot dangling below the line. He was rescued by emergency crews with the help of technicians from an electricity company.

Un #F16 belge s’est crashé à #pluvigner dans le morbihan, le pilote est toujours suspendu à une ligne électrique via @LeTelegramme pic.twitter.com/wYtBAEhGvm — LesNews (@LesNews) September 19, 2019

The Ouest-France newspaper reported that the aircraft had taken off at the Florennes airbase near Namur in Belgium and was en route to the French naval airbase at Lann-Bihoué, in Morbihan department, western France.

“This type of F-16 aircraft had no weapons,” the local prefecture said.

A Belgian defence ministry spokesperson said investigators from the Aviation Safety Directorate had been dispatched to the scene to determine the cause of the accident.

A French police spokeswoman said there were no injuries among residents and that 100 police officers had surrounded the crash site to look for clues as to the cause.

The F-16 crashed 50 metres from a house, damaging part of the roof at the rear. The owners were evacuated.

“We were in the garden. There were aircraft passing overhead, over the trees. We heard a loud bang and the noise of metal tearing. A few moments later, there was a second explosion and more tearing metal. Then silence,” one resident told Ouest-France.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine supersonic aircraft originally developed for the US air force and that first went into service in 1973.

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