Sad news out of Holloman AFB, NM today.
UPDATED at 4:25 p.m. Eastern
ALAMOGORDO, New Mexico -- Officials at Holloman Air Force Base said one person was killed and another injured in a training accident on a military range in southern New Mexico.
Base officials said in a statement that the Tuesday night accident involved members of a ground-control party struck as two F-16 Fighting Falcon jets used unspecified air-to-ground munitions at the Red Rio Range, located within the White Sands Missile Range complex near Holloman.
The incident occurred at approximately 7:30 p.m. local time, according to the statement. Both affected ground personnel were medically evacuated to Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center, where one was pronounced dead at approximately 9 p.m. The other was released after being treated.
According 1st Lt. Travis Schirner, a spokesman for Holloman's 49th Wing, "The fatality was a civilian contractor. The injured individual is an Air Force service member."
The injured service member is assigned to the 7th Air Support Operations Squadron at Fort Bliss, Texas, a geographically separated unit assigned to the 93rd Air Ground Operations Wing located at Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, according to a 49th Wing press release.
The two F-16 pilots involved were uninjured, and an investigation is in the "fact finding stage," according to the Air Force.
The base's statement said the two F-16s are based at Holloman but belong to the 54th Fighter Group, headquartered at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.
Identities were not immediately released, and officials say the incident is under investigation.