US Air Force fighter jet crashes in California desert; Pilot ejects safely | VIDEO
Trona, US: A fighter jet from the US Air Force’s elite Thunderbirds display team has crashed in the Southern California desert during a training mission, with the pilot managing to eject safely, officials have confirmed.
The pilot, who has not been named, was taken to hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department.
The F-16C Fighting Falcon went down at around 10:45 am on Wednesday while conducting training “over controlled airspace in California”, Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada said in a statement.
Emergency crews responded to reports of an “aircraft emergency” near Trona, an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert roughly 180 miles (290 kilometres) north of Los Angeles. The region has seen military aviation accidents before: in 2022, a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed near Trona, killing its pilot.
The cause of Wednesday’s crash is under investigation. Further details will be released by the 57th Wing Public Affairs Office, the Air Force said.
The Thunderbirds, the Air Force’s equivalent to the Navy’s Blue Angels, are renowned for their precise close-formation flying at air shows, often operating within inches of one another. The Air Force statement offered no additional information on what may have led to the crash.
Established in 1953, the Thunderbirds train seasonally out of Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, home to F-16 Falcon and F-22 Raptor fighter jets, as well as A-10 Warthog ground-attack aircraft.
AP