Crash jet records call

A senior US congressman has called on the US Marine Corps to release the maintenance records of all fighter jets of the type that lost power and crashed into a San Diego, California, neighbourhood, killing four members of a Korean family.

San Diego Republican Duncan Hunter, a member of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said the fireball crash on Monday of the F-18 Hornet fighter as it approached Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was apparently caused by power failure.

He said the crash was probably unrelated to the previous discovery of cracks in hinges on the wings of more than a dozen of the €43m aircraft, but “it is important that we gain a complete understanding of what went wrong”.