American fighter jet crashes, pilot dies

The fighter The F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed on the payroll of the US Navy. It crashed near Trona, California, at about 2:30 p.m. local time.

The US military is still verifying the identity of the pilot who died, and will notify the victim’s relatives within 24 hours at the latest.

“No civilians were injured in the accident. The cause of the incident is under investigation,” the US Navy said in a press release. However, they declined to provide any further information.

A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet. Photo: Militarywatchmagazine

F/A-18E fighter, which has been in operation since 2001 and is considered one of the main weapons of the US military.

This is not the first time that a US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet has crashed during training.

In 2019, the F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed in Death Valley National Park, California.

The fighter jet crashed while on a training flight to test weapons. The US Navy confirmed the incident happened near Naval Air Station China Lake, about 200 kilometers north of Los Angeles.

The incident killed the pilot, while 7 people on the ground were tourists with minor injuries because of debris from the crashed plane.

Consecutively in 2020 and 2021, the F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet crashed into the ground on the outskirts of the US Navy’s China Lake weapons testing ground. Fortunately in these incidents the pilots all got out safely and there were no casualties on the ground.

China Lake Weapons Test Site is a large weapons research and development facility with an area larger than the US state of Rhode Island. Many US Navy weapons have been tested and developed here, including Tomahawk cruise missiles and Sidewinder missiles.