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Wreckage of F-22 found in Alaska: US Air Force

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Air Force on Wednesday said it found the "apparent wreckage" of a F-22 fighter jet in Alaska that had failed to return from a routine training mission.

The aircraft, the most sophisticated in the US fleet of warplanes, had lost contact on Tuesday night with air traffic controllers at a base in Alaska and the pilot remained missing, the Air Force said in a statement.

"To continue searching for the missing pilot, a rescue team is being dispatched to the area, approximately 100 miles (161 kilometers) north of Anchorage," said the statement from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

"Finding the missing pilot is our top priority," Colonel Jack McMullen, 3rd Wing commander, said in the statement.

The US military has 187 of the radar-evading F-22 Raptors, which are produced by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.

In 2009, a Raptor crashed in California on a test mission, killing the pilot.