By Amanda Yong

PILOT trainee Lieutenant (LTA) Chee Zhi Hao, 21, was not wearing a seatbelt when he got into a road accident in the US.

He died after the car he was in crashed into the rear of an empty, parked truck at 12.10pm (2.10am Singapore time).

The other passenger, LTA Ingkiriwang Wei Zhi Reeve, 22, was also not wearing a seatbelt.

Only the driver, LTA Lim Jun Kai, 23, had a seatbelt on, stated a Florida Highway Patrol report quoted by online news website News Herald.com

The three Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) regular servicemen were on a Florida highway when the car they were in left the right side of the road. LTA Lim applied the brakes and the car travelled for about 14m before striking the truck.

The impact caused the truck to roll forward about 8m while the car travelled about 1m past the point of impact.

LTA Chee was evacuated by air to the Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida. He was pronounced dead at about 9.20pm.

LTA Lim is in a stable condition at Fort Walton Beach Medical Centre, Florida, while LTA Ingkiriwang was discharged after being treated at the Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast, Florida.

The trio were returning from a visit to the National Naval Aviation Museum at the Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, which was organised by the US Army Aviation Centre in Fort Rucker, Alabama.

This article was first published in The New Paper.