US Marines say F-35 crashed in California; pilot expected to live after ejecting

SAN DIEGO — The US Marine Corps says the pilot of an F-35B stealth fighter is expected to live after ejecting from the jet before it crashed in California.

The jet went down Friday near the Miramar air base in San Diego. “The pilot ejected, was transported to a local medical facility in stable condition for evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries,” the Marine Corps says in an updated statement.

Aerial video from a news helicopter shows a plume of black smoke rising from the wreckage in a dirt field, with multiple military and firefighting vehicles and people standing nearby. What appears to be white flame retardant covers the ground, and at least one person is spraying the wreckage with a fire hose.

Candace Hadley, a spokesperson for San Diego Fire, says firefighters are on scene to respond to a vegetation fire that sparked near the crash site. She refers additional questions to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

The base used to host the Navy fighter pilot training school depicted in the original “Top Gun” movie, and was known as “Fightertown USA” in its heyday. The school was relocated to Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada in 1996 after the base was transferred to the Marine Corps.

The US Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force together have more than 630 F-35s, according to a 2024 analysis by the Government Accounting Office, which estimated the overall price tag to be $2 trillion at that point. The F-35B is one of several versions, and has an engine designed for short takeoffs and vertical landings. A single F-35B costs about $109 million.

A Marines statement calls Friday’s crash a “Class A mishap.” That’s the most severe mishap category, used when the damage totals more than $2 million, an aircraft is destroyed or a service member killed. In the Air Force alone, there have been at least 17 other “Class A mishaps” involving F-35 aircraft since 2000, according to Air Force Safety Center statistics.