Two dead in Turkish fighter jet crash: army

Istanbul: Two Turkish pilots were killed on Thursday when their fighter jet crashed during a training flight, the military said, the second such accident in less than two weeks in the key NATO member.

An F4 aircraft that took off for a training flight at 0658 GMT crashed at 0750 GMT in the central Anatolian city of Konya, the Turkish Armed Forces said in a statement on its website.

The army gave no further information on the cause of the incident. Both pilots on board were killed.

Turkish media said that the flight was part of a joint Turkish-Azerbaijani military exercise which kicked off on Monday.

The accident came after four Turkish pilots were killed when two reconnaissance aircraft crashed in the Malatya region in southeast Turkey on February 24.

The fighter jets of the Turkish army -- a force second only to the United States in the NATO alliance in terms of size -- has in recent years played an active role in patrolling its volatile borders with Iraq and Syria.

The country in 2009 has modernised its ageing fleet of F-4s, in use since 1970´s, with the intention of keeping them until 2020. (AFP)