US Marine Corps F-35B crashes near Miramar after pilot ejects safely

Sandiego,UPDATED: Aug 1, 2026 08:48 IST

An F-35B fighter jet of the US Marine Corps crashed near the Miramar air base in San Diego on Friday after the pilot ejected moments before impact. The Marine Corps said the pilot was taken to a local medical facility in stable condition for evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Aerial footage from a news helicopter showed black smoke rising from the wreckage in a dirt field, with military and firefighting crews at the site. What appeared to be white flame retardant covered the ground, and at least one person was seen spraying the wreckage with a fire hose. The Marine Corps later described the incident as a "Class A mishap", its most serious accident category.

Wade Lott, 36, said he saw the crash while driving to work at a concrete company south of the flight line. He said two jets were descending towards the runway together. "It just blew up, it was crazy," Lott said, adding that he watched from his truck as the first jet landed without incident.

Lott said the second jet then began slowing down, almost as if it were trying to hover. According to him, when the aircraft was about 100 feet above the ground, the pilot ejected and the parachute opened as the pilot rose to about 200 feet in the air. "The jet hit the ground right next to another plane," Lott said. "It ploughed into the runway and just blew up."

Candace Hadley, a spokesperson for San Diego Fire, said firefighters were at the scene to deal with a vegetation fire that broke out near the crash site. She referred further questions to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

The base was once home to the Navy fighter pilot training school shown in the original "Top Gun" film and was known as "Fightertown USA". The school was moved to Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada in 1996 after the base was transferred to the Marine Corps.

According to a 2024 analysis by the Government Accounting Office, the US Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force together have more than 630 F-35 aircraft. The F-35B is one of several versions of the jet and is designed for short take-offs and vertical landings. A single F-35B costs about USD 109 million, while the report estimated the overall F-35 programme will cost roughly USD 2 trillion after the military buys more than 1,800 more aircraft and operates them for decades.

The Marine Corps said Friday's crash was a "Class A mishap", a category used when damage exceeds USD 2 million, an aircraft is destroyed, or a service member is killed. Air Force Safety Centre statistics show there have been at least 17 other Class A mishaps involving F-35 aircraft since 2000. The Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network database says at least seven other military aircraft mishaps have taken place in the US this year.

The Lexington Institute, a think tank focused on defence technology and national security, has described the F-35 as the safest and most capable fighter jet in the US military fleet. The article said there have been fewer crashes involving F-35 variants since the aircraft entered service in 2015 than with other fighter jets when they were new, and fatal crashes involving F-35s are rare. In five F-35 crashes, pilots were able to eject, though at least one was injured when an F-35 crashed near the international airport in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in May 2024.

The crash near Miramar left the aircraft destroyed, triggered a fire response on the ground and was witnessed by people near the air base, but the pilot survived after ejecting in time and remains in stable condition, according to the Marine Corps.

With PTI Inputs

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