A Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II crashed Friday morning at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, sending black smoke above the base and igniting a brush fire near the flight line. The pilot ejected before impact and reached a local hospital in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries.
The aircraft went down at approximately 10 a.m. south of Miramar Road near Mitscher Way, according to Times of San Diego. The Marine Corps classified the incident as a Class A mishap but has not announced a cause, identified the pilot or disclosed what the aircraft was doing before the crash as of Friday afternoon.
The F-35B belonged to Marine Aircraft Group 11, part of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing headquartered at Miramar. MAG-11 supports missions that include offensive air support, anti-aircraft warfare and aerial reconnaissance.
Video recorded from a news helicopter belonging to NBC San Diego showed the aircraft in at least two pieces amid a scorched area roughly the size of a football field. Firefighters sprayed the wreckage while military personnel and emergency vehicles gathered around the site, only a short distance from a runway.
The impact ignited nearby vegetation and produced a column of black smoke visible from surrounding communities. The fire spread across several acres before crews extinguished it by early afternoon.
What a Class A Mishap Means
A Class A designation is the military’s most serious mishap category, according to U.S. Naval Safety Command.
Naval Safety Command applies it when an accident causes at least $2.5 million in property damage, destroys a Defense Department aircraft, causes a death or leaves someone permanently and totally disabled.
The classification does not mean that the Miramar pilot suffered a fatal or permanently disabling injury. Destruction of the aircraft would qualify the crash for the designation regardless of the pilot’s condition. An F-35B costs approximately $109 million, according to Simple Flying.
The F-35B is the short-takeoff and vertical-landing version of the F-35 Lightning II. Its lift system allows Marines to operate the stealth fighter from amphibious assault ships and locations without conventional runways.
This story will be updated with more information if necessary.
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