OTTAWA—A Royal Canadian Air Force pilot died Monday when a CF-18 jet fighter crashed while on a training mission in western Canada, defense officials said.

Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said it was too early "to make any kind of judgments or conclusions" about what unfolded. He said investigators were headed to the crash scene, near a military air base in Cold Lake, Alberta, to gather details.

The pilot's name and age wasn't released. The air force said the crash occurred just after 1 p.m. EST, and the pilot was from the squadron based in Cold Lake, which is in eastern Alberta and near the border with Saskatchewan.

"This is a very sad day for the Canadian air force," said Lt. Gen. Michael Hood, commander of the air force, who was testifying before a Canadian Senate committee when news of the pilot's death emerged.

Canada's current fleet of CF-18 jet fighters is over 30 years old and was down from 138 aircraft to 77. Last week, the Canadian government said it would launch talks with Boeing Co. to buy 18 F/A-18 Super Hornet aircraft as an interim measure in a planned overhaul of the country's legacy CF-18 fleet.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 28, 2016 16:45 ET (21:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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