Various news outlets (including CNN and Fox) reported that Israeli Defense Force Lt. Assaf Ramon died in an F-16 crash on Sunday.  (The Lieutenant was posthumously promoted to Captain.)  The Israel National News reports speculation that sounds much like a G-LOC.  The aircraft was an F-16A, an older version of the American-made fighter; the crash appears to have occurred during his F-16 training, just a few months after he received his wings from basic pilot training.

Ramon was reported as being either 20 or 21 years old, both of which are young by American standards.  Based on entering college at 17 and accounting for a year-long pilot training, an American F-16 pilot would likely be no younger than 22 when he first started his F-16 training.  By contrast, some have said that the military service required of Israeli citizens values skill over college education; therefore, pilot training (and other advanced military training) may actually occur prior to higher education.

As has also been widely reported, Ramon’s father was Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut, who was killed when the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on reentry in 2003. The elder Ramon also flew an F-16 himself, and was one of the initial cadre to stand up Israel’s F-16 forces after learning to fly the F-16 at Hill AFB, Utah.  He was subsequently the youngest pilot in the 8 F-16s that bombed the Iraqi Osirak nuclear facility in 1981.