Miracle escape for crews after US Navy jets collide
Investigations are under way after two Navy jets collided and crashed during an air show at a military base in Idaho.
Two US military jets have collided and crashed in horror scenes in front of hundreds of people on the ground at an air show in Idaho.
The collision on Sunday (local time) at the Mountain Home Air Force Base involved two US Navy EA18-G Growlers from the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington.
Footage from the scene that is circulating online shows the aircraft collide as they perform an aerial demonstration. The four crew members from both jets safely ejected and were being evaluated by medical personnel.
“We had four good parachutes,” an air show announcer said, according to local media.
“The crews were able to eject. They’re located one mile (1.6 kilometres) south of where the smoke is. The parachutes came down.”
Shane Ogden told US outlet Politico he was filming the two jets as they came close together. A video he captured shows the two aircraft appear to make contact and then spin in tandem as the crew members eject and their parachutes open. The planes then fall together, exploding into a fireball upon impact as the crew members drop to the ground nearby.
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“I was just filming thinking they were going to split apart and that happened and I filmed the rest,” Ogden told Politico.
The crash is under investigation.
Four crew have survived after two Navy jets spectacularly collided at an air show in Idaho. Photos: X/AAP
Nobody at the military base was hurt, said Kim Sykes, marketing director with Silver Wings of Idaho, which helped to plan the air show.
“Everyone is safe and I think that’s the most important thing,” Sykes said.
The base said in a social media post that it was locked down following the incident.
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Videos posted online by spectators showed four parachutes opening in the sky as the aircraft plummet to the ground near the base about 80 kilometres south of Boise.
The local Mountain Home Police Department said shortly after that the air show had been officially canceled for the remainder of the day. The public was advised not to travel to or try to access the base “as a spectator, as the event will no longer be taking place.”
Organisers said the popular air show that includes flying demonstrations and parachute jumps is a celebration of aviation history and a look at modern military capabilities. The US Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron headlined the show both days.
This year’s Gunfighter Skies event was the first at the base since 2018, when a hang glider died in a crash during an air show performance.
In 2003, a Thunderbirds aircraft crashed while attempting a manoeuvre. The pilot, who was not hurt, was able to steer the plane away from the crowd and eject less than a second before it hit the ground.
The air show industry has been working to improve safety for years at the 200 events held each year in the United States.
The last fatal crash at an air show was in 2022 when two vintage military planes collided at an event in Dallas and killed six people.
Investigators may be able to quickly get an idea of what happened in Sunday’s crash because the crews of both planes survived and will be able to tell investigators what they experienced before the collision.
-with AAP
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