MANAMA (Dispatches) – A twin-engine supersonic and multirole McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet combat jet has crash landed at Bahrain International Airport, disrupting flights to and from the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.
Social media pictures of the crash showed the plane leaning back on its tail with its nose tipped into the air.
The grey fighter jet seemed largely intact and the pilot ejected from the aircraft. It is not immediately clear whether anyone was injured in the incident.
Video footage of the crash, which took place at around 2 p.m. local time (1100 GMT) on Saturday, showed smoke billowing from the cockpit.
Dozens of flights were diverted after the incident. Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. Fifth Fleet, has recently stepped up a crackdown on critics, barring two main political groups, revoking the citizenship of the spiritual leader of the Shia community, Sheikh Isa Qassim, and jailing rights activists.
Back in May and less than 48 hours after US President Donald Trump left Saudi Arabia, where he had met Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah, Manama regime troops attacked supporters of Sheikh Qassim in the northwestern village of Diraz, killing at least five people and arresting 286 others.