Another tragedy for the family of Ilan Ramon: JERUSALEM (Associated Press) - The son of an Israeli astronaut who died in the space shuttle Columbia disaster six years ago was killed Sunday when his F-16 warplane crashed on a routine training flight, the Israeli military said.
The military identified the dead pilot as Capt. Asaf Ramon, son of Ilan Ramon, Israel's first and only astronaut.
One of seven crew members killed when the Columbia exploded as it re-entered the atmosphere in 2003, Ilan Ramon is seen as a national hero in Israel, and radio and TV stations broke into their broadcasts Sunday to report the news of his son's death.
The crash elicited emotional responses from Israeli leaders. The military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, arrived at the family's home along with the air force commander after news of the crash was made public, and the country's defense minister, Ehud Barak, said he was "heartbroken."
"It is a sad and painful day," Barak told reporters.
Ramon's fighter jet crashed south of the West Bank city of Hebron. Dan Kapach, a security officer at a nearby Israeli settlement, described a "huge explosion."
"There is a big hole in the ground, and fragments of the plane are scattered all over," he told Israel's Channel 10 TV.
The air force commander, Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, called an official inquiry and halted training in Israel's F-16 squadrons "until further notice," the military said in a statement. There was no immediate word on what caused the crash.
Ramon, 21, was the eldest of Ilan Ramon's four children. He excelled in his pilot training and in June received a presidential honor and was given his pilot's wings by President Shimon Peres.
Responding to the crash, Peres said in a statement, "In our worst dreams we could not have imagined something more heartrending."
Ramon was posthumously promoted from lieutenant to the rank of captain.
The pilot was 15 at the time of the death of his father, the payload specialist on the Columbia. A former fighter pilot who took part in Israel's bombing of an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, Ilan Ramon had schools and other institutions named for him after his death.
On Sunday, Israeli TV stations screened footage of Ramon floating weightless in the space shuttle, swallowing floating drops of water and speaking about his love for his wife and children.
Story published Sunday, Sept. 13, by Aron Heller, Associated Press Writer.
IMAGE NOTE: Friends and relatives of Capt. Assaf Ramon, killed in an air crash Sunday, gather around his grave covered in flowers, next to his father's grave, during his funeral at a cemetery near the northern Israeli city of Nahalal, Monday, Sept. 14. 2009. Capt. Assaf Ramon, the son of an Israeli astronaut who died in the space shuttle Columbia disaster six years ago was killed Sunday when his F-16 warplane crashed on a routine training flight, the Israeli military said. (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)
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