One Brick Short

Like a torn page from the “Top Gun” script, two U.S. fighter planes flying over the Gulf of Mexico would up in the ocean with one pilot dead and the other recovered by a fishing boat.

According to an Associated Press story by Melissa Nelson, two single-seat F-15C Eagle fighters out of Elgin Air Force Base were working on basic maneuvers and tactics when the two touched and went down. Both pilots ejected—and here’s the “Top Gun” connection—one died, apparently after being plucked from the water by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The condition of the surviving pilot and the names of both pilots were not released.

The Air Force grounded all of its F-15s — nearly 700 — after the catastrophic failure of an F-15C during a rou-tine training flight in Missouri in November. The pilot safely ejected. Most were back in service by January, but others were grounded indefinitely after defects were found. The cause of the collision about 35 miles south of Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle was not immediately known.

The Air Force began using the F-15C in 1979. The planes, built by McDonnell Douglas Corp., were deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1991 in support of Operation Desert Storm and have since been used in Iraq, Turkey and Bosnia. The planes can fly as high as 65,000 feet, and each costs about $30 million, according to the Air Force.