The pilot, a member of the Air Force’s Thunderbirds aerobatics team, managed to soundly eject
A US F-16C crashed throughout a coaching mission over California on Wednesday morning, the Air Power reported.
The airplane got here down in an unpopulated desert space round 130 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles in a zone used for dwell weapons testing, Stars and Stripes navy information outlet stated on Wednesday.
A video circulating on social media purports to point out a fireball rising from the crash website, with the pilot parachuting down far away.
Based on the US Air Force, the airplane belonged to its premier air demonstration squadron.
“On Dec. 3, 2025, at approximately 10:45 am, a pilot from the US Air Force Air Demonstration Team, the Thunderbirds, safely ejected from an F-16C Fighting Falcon during a training mission over controlled airspace in California,” a USAF spokesperson stated in an announcement.
The pilot was in critical condition and obtained follow-up care, they added.
Earlier this year, a Polish Air Force F-16 pilot belonging to the nation’s Tiger Demo aerobatic team died in a crash in the course of the Radom Air Show after trying a high-speed barrel roll maneuver.
