Six years after his father Ilan Ramon died in the fatal Columbia space shuttle mission, Capt. Assaf Ramon was killed on Sunday when the Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter jet he was piloting crashed into the southern Hebron Hills.
Israel Air Force captain Asaf Ramon, who was killed on Sunday after his plane crashed in the West Bank hills, was the son of Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon, victim of the 2003 Columbia space shuttle explosion. The elder Ramon was one of seven crew members killed when Columbia disintegrated upon re-entering the atmosphere on February 1, 2003.