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All four crew members ejected safely after two US Navy jets collided and crashed Sunday during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho, officials said.
The collision involved two US Navy EA18-G Growlers of Electronic Attack Squadron 129 on Whidbey Island, Washington, said Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, spokeswoman for the Naval Air Forces, US Pacific Fleet.
The plane was performing a flight when it crashed, Umayam said in a statement. The four crew members of both planes got out safely and the accident is still under investigation, he said.
The workers are in stable condition, said police officials.
No one was injured at the military base, said Kim Sykes, director of marketing for the Silver Wings of Idaho volunteer group, which helped organize the air show.
Two US Navy jets collided Sunday during an air show in western Idaho, but all four crew members were able to get out safely, officials said. Video shot by onlooker Shane Odgen shows the two planes seeming to touch and spin together as crew members eject and their parachutes open.
“Everybody’s safe and I think that’s the most important thing,” Sykes said.
The site said on social media that it was shut down immediately following the accident. The remainder of the air show has been cancelled.
Videos posted online by viewers showed four parachutes deploying from the sky as the plane descended near the base about 80 miles south of Boise.
The EA-18G Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet with sophisticated electronic warfare systems.
Shane Odgen said he was filming the two jets as they approached each other. The video he shot shows the two planes seeming to touch and circle together as the crew ejects and their parachutes open. The planes then crash together, exploding into a ball of fire as crew members drift to the ground nearby.
“I was just recording thinking that they were going to split up and then that happened and I recorded something else,” said Odgen in his text. He said he left after the accident because he did not want to interfere in emergency situations.
Organizers said the popular air show, which includes flying displays and parachute jumps, is a celebration of aviation history and a look at modern military capabilities. The US Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron led the demonstration on both days.
The National Weather Service reported good visibility and wind gusts of up to 47 km/h at the time of the accident.
‘Small margin of error’
It’s amazing that both crews were able to get out of their planes, and aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said that was possible because of the way the planes collided and appeared to be stuck in the air before falling to Earth. Workers often don’t have a chance to evacuate in high winds, he said.
“It’s really amazing to see,” Guzzetti said. “It looks like they hit each other in a unique way to keep them strong and stick together and that could have saved them.”
“It looks like an inspection issue to me. It doesn’t look like it was a mechanical malfunction,” he added. “Encountering another aircraft on a scheduled flight is a challenge, and it must be done properly to prevent this type of thing.”
Aviation safety expert John Cox, chief of Safety Operating Systems, said that pilots who do air sports are some of the best, but there is little chance of mistakes.
“Air show flying is demanding. It’s very low tolerance,” Cox said. “The people doing it are great and it’s a small mistake. I’m glad everyone was able to get out.”
This year’s Gunfighter Skies event was the first at the venue since 2018, when a hang glider pilot died in an accident during an air show.
In 2003, a US Air Force Thunderbirds plane crashed while trying to take off. The pilot, who was not injured, was able to navigate the plane through the crowd and get out less than a second before it hit the ground.
The air show industry has been working to improve safety for years at the nearly 200 events held annually in the U.S. The last fatal accident at an air show occurred in 2022 when two vintage military aircraft collided at an event in Dallas, killing six people.
An average of 3.8 deaths per year occurred at US air shows from 1991 to 2006, said John Cudahy, president and CEO of the International Council of Air Shows. That death rate has been increasing and as of 2017 there is an average of 1.1 deaths per year even in 2022 collisions. There have been no deaths at US air shows in 2023 or 2025, and a spectator has not been killed at a US air show since 1952.
“In terms of safety we have enjoyed an unprecedented period of fewer accidents,” Cudahy said.
Investigators may be able to quickly get a sense of what happened in Sunday’s crash because the crew of both planes survived and will be able to tell investigators what they saw and went through before the collision. The Navy will lead the investigation, so there won’t be as much information shared publicly as in public accidents.
The war in Iran has led to the cancellation of some air shows this year at bases where military units fly related to the conflict.
