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TOKYO : A Japanese F-2 fighter jet burst into flames just after takeoff in central Japan on Wednesday but its two pilots managed to escape with relatively minor injuries, officials said.
The plane was about to start its first test flight since it was docked for regular check-ups at the domestic airport in the central city of Nagoya, its manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said.
It nosedived immediately after takeoff at the airport, which is also used by the Japanese air force, and glided on its tail over the runway before swerving off into the grass, television footage showed.
The fire on the plane, estimated to be worth 12 billion yen (100 million dollars), was put out in half an hour.
"We failed on takeoff and the fuselage plunged almost vertically from a height of 50 metres," one of the pilots, Keiji Nagata, 52, was quoted as saying.
"I felt a tremendous weight of gravity and then a pain in my buttocks," he said, according to doctor Yutaka Ogawa who treated the pilot.
Nagata sustained broken ribs and requires two months of treatment, the doctor told a televised news conference.
Fellow pilot Mitsuo Mizushima, 56, bruised his shoulder.
Both are veteran test pilots for Mitsubishi, a Mitsubishi official told a news conference.
"It is not yet certain what has caused the accident," he said.
Resembling the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F-2 has been the mainstay of officially pacifist Japan's air force since 2000. - AFP/de
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