An F-16 fighter jet crashed within the desert city of Trona on Wednesday, authorities stated.
The pilot safely ejected from the plane and was in secure situation, in response to U.S. Air Power Sgt. Jovante Johnson. The F-16C Combating Falcon was assigned to the Air Power Thunderbirds, an aerial acrobatic demonstration group based mostly at Nellis Air Power Base in Nevada, Johnson stated in an electronic mail.
The crash happened at round 10:45 a.m. throughout a coaching mission, he wrote. The reason for the crash is below investigation.
A motorist, Darren Springer, 60, stated he was driving south out of Dying Valley when he noticed an explosion that despatched up a thick plume of black smoke. “My coronary heart sank,” he stated.
He regarded by way of a pair of binoculars and noticed the wreckage of a fighter jet strewn throughout the desert ground on the fringe of the Searles dry lake. That was adopted by a response from “nearly each emergency automobile you may think about,” he stated.
Earlier than the crash, Springer noticed at the very least 4 Thunderbirds flying low over the world, he stated.
The crash happened about 20 miles from the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, the Navy’s largest base and a hub for growing and testing weapons.
