A pilot survived when his F-35 Air Force jet crashed during a training exercise at Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska.
The pilot indicated there was an inflight emergency before he ejected from the single-seat fighter jet on Tuesday, The Associated Press reported.
The crash occurred while the plane was landing and was caught on video, CNN reported. You can see a parachute in the air on the right side of the frame before you see the plane falling to the ground.
Air Force officials said the crash resulted in significant damage to the plane. The pilot was listed in stable condition and was treated at an Army hospital
The 354th Fighter Wing commander Col. Paul Townsend said that the Air Force will conduct “a thorough investigation in hopes to minimize the chances of such occurrences from happening again.” He did not say what caused the “inflight malfunction.”
The F-35 can fly for more than 12 hours and can get to nearly anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere in a single mission, the AP said.
This is not the first recent crash of an F-35. One crashed in May while flying from Texas to Edwards Air Force Base in California. The pilot had refueled in New Mexico just before the crash. In a separate crash, a pilot ejected needlessly from his plane in 2023, allowing the jet to fly unmanned for 11 minutes before crashing, the AP reported. A military investigation found that there was an electrical malfunction in the jet and the pilot was disoriented, according to Military.com.
Eielson Air Force Base is the hub for more than 50 F-35 jets, CNN reported. The Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps all use the F-35 with each plane costing about $81 million on average, Anchorage Daily News reported. They are called the “latest fifth-generation fighter” and replaced the F-16 Fighting Falcons and A-10 Thunderbolt II’s.