MUST SEE: Four Navy Crew Members Survived a Fiery Midair Crash

The survival of all four crew members is being described by aviation professionals as genuinely extraordinary. Billie Flynn, a former F-35 senior test pilot and demonstration expert, called the fact that all four were able to safely eject and make it to the ground without landing in the wreckage truly remarkable.

Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said that may have been possible because of the way the planes collided and appeared to remain stuck together in midair before falling to Earth. Crews usually don’t have a chance to eject in a midair collision, he said.

“It’s really striking to see. It looks like they struck each other in a very unique fashion to cause them to remain intact and kind of stick to each other and that very well could have saved them.”

The sequence of events was captured on video by multiple spectators and by photographer Shane Ogden, who had been filming the aircraft when the collision occurred. Ogden said he was filming the two jets as they came close together.

A video he captured shows the two aircraft appear to make contact and then spin in tandem as the crew members eject and their parachutes open. The planes then fall together, exploding into a fireball upon impact as the crew members drift to the ground nearby. “I was just filming thinking they were going to split apart and that happened, and I filmed the rest,” Ogden said.

A witness who recorded a video on Instagram said: “I heard someone next to me say, ‘We are down.’ I turned around and saw four parachutes coming down, then black smoke appeared.”

The simultaneous sight of four parachutes opening in the air above the crash site while the aircraft fell together to the ground is the image that has defined media coverage of the incident and that has been shared millions of times across social media platforms since Sunday afternoon.

Videos of the collision suggest human error is to blame. Before colliding, the video shows they were trying to line up closely, wing tip to wing tip, but failed to safely rejoin in formation, a routine maneuver. Officials have not yet released any information about what may have contributed to the crash.

The formation rejoining maneuver is a standard element of air show aerial demonstrations, requiring pilots to bring aircraft that have separated to close proximity with extremely precise speed and position control. The margin for error is minimal and the consequences of misjudging closure rate or angle are exactly what the video of Sunday’s crash documents.

Aviation safety expert John Cox, who is CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said the pilots who perform at air shows are among the best, but there is little room for error. The EA-18G Growler pilots from Electronic Attack Squadron 129, based at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in Washington State, are among the most experienced aviators in the United States Navy.

The skill required to fly the Growler’s sophisticated electronic warfare systems while executing the formation and maneuver requirements of an air show demonstration is considerable, and the occurrence of the collision does not reflect on the professional caliber of the aviators involved but on the inherent risk of high-precision formation flying at low altitude before a crowd.

The EA-18G Growler, measuring just over 60 feet long, made its first flight in August 2006 and was the first newly designed electronic warfare aircraft produced in more than 35 years, according to the Navy. Its baptism of fire was in 2011 in Libya, and since then it has been used worldwide.

The Growler variants used in Sunday’s crash are among the most capable and expensive aircraft in the Navy’s inventory. Each one of these planes cost roughly $67 million.

The loss of two $67 million aircraft in a single Sunday morning incident represents approximately $134 million in military hardware, a significant material cost that accompanies the near-catastrophic human cost that was averted by the ejection system’s performance.

This is the third major incident in 23 years at the Gunfighters Air Show and the first airshow since a hiatus resulting from a fatal 2018 civilian glider incident.

The Gunfighter Skies Air Show had returned to Mountain Home Air Force Base after a multi-year pause that followed the 2018 incident and was holding its event over a two-day period when Sunday’s collision occurred. The base announced a lockdown at 12:30 p.m. local time.

Later, as emergency personnel responded, guests were asked to remain on the base so the crews could work freely before they were eventually allowed to leave around 3 p.m.

Col. David R. Gunter, wing commander of the 366th Fighter Wing, which is known as the Gunfighters and is housed at the base, said in a statement: “First and foremost, we are incredibly thankful that everyone involved in today’s incident is safe.

The extraordinary professionalism of our emergency response teams, including city and county, allowed for quick response to the aircrew as well as securing the scene to ensure the safety of our guests, performers and community.”

Only one of the four crew members on the two planes was injured and was being treated at a hospital. The injury was not life-threatening.

The single non-life-threatening injury among four crew members who ejected from two colliding aircraft is the detail that underscores just how remarkable the survival outcome was. Ejection from a fighter jet at low altitude during an air show maneuver, with another aircraft in immediate proximity, represents one of the highest-risk ejection scenarios in military aviation. All four crew members are alive.

Silver Wings of Idaho, the volunteer board that worked alongside Mountain Home Air Force Base to plan and support the Gunfighter Skies 2026 Airshow, released a statement: “Today was an emotional and difficult day at Gunfighter Skies. While the events were not what anyone expected, we are incredibly grateful and relieved that all four pilots involved are safe. That is, and always will be, the most important thing. Our hearts are with everyone affected today, the pilots, their families, the crews, and all those who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make this event possible.”

Mountain Home Mayor Rich Sykes added his comments on the event, confirming that no additional injuries beyond the one crew member being treated were reported. The emergency response from Mountain Home Air Force Base personnel, city and county first responders, and Air St. Luke’s medical helicopter service was praised by multiple officials as having been rapid, professional, and effective in securing the scene and ensuring the safety of the thousands of spectators who had gathered at the base for what was expected to be a celebration of American airpower and aviation history.

The skills used in air show performances are different from those used in day-to-day routine flying or flying in combat. The Iran war has led to the cancellation of some air shows this year at bases where military units are flying missions related to the conflict. The operational context of the crash is relevant. American military aviation resources have been significantly strained by the Iran conflict, which has required sustained deployment of naval air assets including Growler-equipped electronic warfare squadrons to support the Strait of Hormuz enforcement and the broader regional air campaign. Electronic Attack Squadron 129, the Whidbey Island unit whose aircraft were involved in Sunday’s crash, operates aircraft that have been directly employed in the Iran conflict’s electronic warfare dimension.

The Navy will lead the investigation into the cause of Sunday’s collision. Investigators may be able to quickly get an idea of what happened in Sunday’s crash because the crews of both planes survived and will be able to tell investigators what they saw and experienced before the collision. The Navy will lead the investigation, so there won’t be as much information shared publicly as in civilian crashes. The survival of all four crew members means that the investigation will have firsthand accounts from everyone aboard both aircraft, significantly accelerating the fact-finding process compared to investigations where crew fatalities eliminate the primary witnesses.

The broader air show safety record provides context for Sunday’s incident. There used to be an average of 3.8 deaths a year at US air shows from 1991 to 2006. That number has been steadily improving and since 2017 there have only been an average of 1.1 deaths per year. There were no air show deaths in 2025 or 2023, and a spectator hasn’t been killed at an air show in the US in recent memory. The industry’s sustained improvement in safety outcomes reflects decades of deliberate work by show organizers, military and civilian aviation authorities, and the International Council of Air Shows to implement better planning, box protocols, and performance standards that minimize risk to crews and spectators alike.

Sunday’s crash at Mountain Home Air Force Base will become part of that safety improvement process. The ejection system’s performance in an extraordinarily difficult scenario, saving all four crew members from two aircraft that locked together and fell to the ground in a fireball, will be documented, analyzed, and incorporated into the training and safety frameworks that protect the next generation of air show performers and the audiences who gather to watch them.