video transcript

(ROUGH CUT ONLY - NO REPORTER NARRATION) Search efforts by the U.S. Air Force and the Italian Coast Guard continued on Tuesday (January 29) for a U.S. F-16 fighter jet and its pilot that went missing during a training mission in north-eastern Italy on Monday evening. A fuel slick had been sighted at sea, ANSA news agency reported. The U.S. Air Force said only that it "lost contact" with the F-16 at about 8 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) on Monday. "The aircraft was performing a training mission over the Adriatic Sea with one person on board. The pilot's condition is unknown at this time," the U.S. Air Force said in a statement. A helicopter, four Italian coast guard cutters and four vessels were combing the waters 10 miles (16 km) from Cervia, on the northern Adriatic coast. Coast guard divers have also been readied. A spokesman at Aviano Air Base in northern Italy said more information would released when it became available.