Fighter jet crash

Five fighter planes have returned to the US after the sixth plane in the group crashed in Cambridgeshire last week.

Major Taj Sareen died when his F-18 came down in the Fens shortly after taking off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

The recovery operation is expected to last two weeks. This morning the remaining five planes left Lakenheath for the United States.

A memorial fund set up for the young daughter of a US Navy pilot who died when his plane crashed in Cambridgeshire has so far raised almost 35,000 dollars.

34 year old Major Taj Sareen was killed when his F/A-18 Hornet came down shortly after take off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk on Wednesday morning.

Major Sareen was a member of 232 Squadron The Red Devils who are the most decorated squadron within the US Marine Corps. It's not known why his aircraft suffered a catastrophic failure.

Wellwishers from both sides of the Atlantic have been donating to a fund set up by a family friend to be used by Major Sareen's little girl Jade when she is older.

https://www.gofundme.com/inmemoryoftaj

The dead fighter pilot has been named by ABC News in America as Marine fighter pilot Major Taj Sareen from San Mateo County in California. He leaves a family including a young daughter.

ABC7 News says Major Sareen graduated from the University of San Francisco in 2004. He was a pilot in the Marine Corps for nearly 11 years.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Sareen joined the Marine Corps as an F/A-18 Pilot in 2005. Major Sareen was stationed at Marine Corp Air Station Miramar in San Diego County.

His jet was one of six coming back to the states from the Gulf when it crashed in Cambridgeshire.

ABC 7 News Photographer Chris Jewett attended USF with Taj Sareen. Even before Sareen embarked on his military career, Jewett says he knew he wanted to make a difference.

"He had this confidence and infectious smile. When he came in the room everyone wanted to talk to him whether he was wearing his dress blues or not," Jewett said. "It just seemed like something he was called to do, something meaningful."

You can watch the ABC7 News report here

And click below for a report on the plane crash by ITV Anglia's Malcolm Robertson

Investigators say they will remain at the scene of a fatal plane crash in the Fens for at least the next two days.

The pilot was killed after the F-18 jet came down in farmland at Redmere, near Ely, yesterday morning.

Investigators spent the night at the crash site gathering evidence to try to work out what happened.

The aircraft had recently left RAF Lakenheath and belonged to the US Marine Corps.

David Tilbury filmed the planes as they took off earlier in the day.

A US aircraft crash which killed the pilot has raised questions over the safety of military flights in the Anglia region.

The FA-18 crash is the second in just over a year involving a jet taking off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

In October 2014 a US military F-15 crashed in Lincolnshire. On that occasion the pilot managed to eject safely.

The Spalding crash followed another accident the previous January when four US military personnel were killed when their Pave Hawk Helicopter, again from RAF Lakenheath, was brought down by a bird strike at a nature reserve in Cley-next-the-Sea on the north Norfolk coast.

Click below for Russell Hookey's report

A witness has described the moment a US jet crashed near her home.

The aircraft came down in a field shortly after taking off from RAF Lakenheath.

Hannah Bridges said: "It was obviously the plane.

"It was so loud it rattled stuff in the house. I've never heard anything like that before and we have planes fly over constantly."

"It was incredibly low and something sounded wrong.

"I think it must have come over ours and literally come down. I can't really explain the noise to you."

Click below to hear from Hannah Bridges

The last pictures of a doomed military jet have been obtained by ITV News Anglia.

The video shows six FA-18 Hornet jets taking off from RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.

Moments later one crashed in a field killing the pilot.