In pictures: Assaf Ramon crash
**Israel is mourning the death in a plane crash of the pilot son of the country’s first astronaut, Ilan Ramon, himself killed in the Columbia shuttle tragedy.**Assaf Ramon, 21, died on Sunday when the Israeli F-16 fighter jet he was flying crashed in the West Bank.
His father Ilan - an Israeli national hero - died with six other astronauts in the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003.
Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu said the nation was “wrapped in grief”.
Mr Netanyahu postponed a key meeting with the visiting US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to attend a ceremony in which Assaf Ramon will be laid to rest near his father at the cemetery in Nahalal, a town near Tel Aviv.
“Few are the moments in which private pain so strongly shatters the national heart,” Mr Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying in his condolence message to the Ramon family.
“Today, the entire nation is wrapped in unfathomable grief over the death of Assaf Ramon, who fell from the skies like his father Ilan,” he said.
Routine flight
Sunday’s crash took place in a hilly area south of the city of Hebron, military officials said.
The jet was on a routine training flight, they added. It is not clear why it went down.
An unidentified Palestinian told Israeli TV that the plane had flown low over the southern West Bank before crashing.
“There was a huge fire,” the eyewitness said.
Lt Ramon had graduated from the Israeli air force pilot’s course in June.
The military statement said he had excelled in his training course, and had been given his wings by President Shimon Peres.
The Columbia disaster occurred on 1 February 2003.
The space shuttle disintegrated during re-entry over the US state of Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.