A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II crashed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego on Friday, with the pilot ejecting safely before the jet went down near the flight line. The pilot was recovered and taken to a local medical facility in stable condition for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
The aircraft was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11 and the mishap was classified as a Class A aviation incident, the military’s most serious category. Local footage and reporting showed smoke and fire in the crash area after impact, while emergency crews moved quickly to secure the scene. The F-35B is the Marine Corps’ short takeoff and vertical landing variant, making the successful low-altitude ejection the immediate operational focus of the incident.
The cause remains under investigation, and no official explanation has been released for why the jet went down. Publicly available reports confirm the crash and the pilot’s survival, but do not yet establish the trigger, the precise sequence of the ejection or a definitive technical fault.