Berlin ? The pilot of a U.S. fighter jet was killed when his aircraft crashed in a wooded area during routine night maneuvers in western Germany, the military said Thursday.

The plane went down about 3 kilometers (2 miles) outside Spangdahlem Air Base, between the towns of Landscheid and Hof Hau in an area close to the German border with Luxembourg, said Air Force Staff Sgt. Cindy York, a base spokeswoman.

Capt. Luke A. Johnson, 26, was approaching the runway in his F-16 at around 9 p.m. (2000 GMT) Wednesday when the control tower lost contact with the plane, said Air Force Maj. Francisco Hamm, a base spokesman.

At 11.40 p.m. (2240 GMT) the aircraft was found by a German police patrol in an unpopulated wooded area along a logging road.

The cause of the crash is unclear, and it is not yet known whether Johnson tried to eject. Air Force investigators were at the scene, but a determination could take months.

“As far as we know he was just on a routine training mission,” Hamm said. “At this point our thoughts are with the family.”

F-16 jets can be outfitted to carry a crew of one or two, but Johnson’s aircraft was a single-seater, Hamm said. The F-16 was one of about 50 stationed at the base.

There was light rain and fog at the time of the crash, with winds of 11 kilometers per hour (7 mph) winds from the northeast and visibility of 8 kilometers (5 miles), York said.

A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Johnson was part of the 23rd Fighter Squadron of the 52nd Fighter Wing. The Powell Park, Wyoming, native is survived by his wife, and the Air Force planned a memorial service at the base chapel on Sunday.

The F-16, a single-engine fighter, is a small plane with a sharp nose and a single tail fin. It can cruise at 1,500 mph (2,413 kph) – twice the speed of sound, or Mach 2 – and maneuver quickly enough to put nine times the force of gravity on plane and pilot. The dlrs 34 million planes can fight other aircraft or launch missiles against targets on the ground.

In the recent offensive in Afghanistan, code-named Operation Anaconda, the planes were used to strike dug-in enemy positions in the mountainous terrain where U.S. and allied forces were battling al-Qaida and Taliban fighters.