F-22 crashes in desert; pilot killed

One of the Air Force's top-of-the-line F-22 fighter jets crashed on Wednesday in the high desert of Southern California, killing a test pilot for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp.

The F-22A Raptor crashed about 56 km northeast of Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert. The Bureau of Land Management identifies the area as Harper Dry Lake, a vast and empty expanse of sometimes marshy flat land.

The pilot was David Cooley, 49, a 21-year Air Force veteran who joined Lockheed Martin in 2003, the company said in a statement. It did not release any details of the accident, including whether Cooley attempted to eject.