Boise, Idaho, officials said all four crew members ejected safely after two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growler jets collided and crashed Sunday during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho. The incident occurred while the jets were performing an aerial demonstration, officials said, and the Navy is investigating what led to the collision.
Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, a spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a statement that both aircraft involved were U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers from Electronic Attack Squadron 129, based in Whidbey Island, Washington. Umayam said that each of the four crew members from the two jets safely ejected and that the crash was under investigation.
Mountain Home officials said the base locked down immediately after the crash and canceled the remainder of the air show. Videos posted by spectators showed parachutes opening as the jets fell to the ground near the base, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boise, according to the report.
Silver Wings of Idaho, which helped plan the show, said nobody at the base was hurt. Kim Sykes, the group’s marketing director, said: “Everyone is safe and I think that’s the most important thing,” describing the ejection as the key outcome for the event’s safety.
The air show, which includes flying demonstrations and parachute jumps, had been headlined by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds on both days. The report said this year’s Gunfighter Skies event was the first at the base since 2018, when a hang glider pilot died in a crash during an air show performance.
The report cited meteorological conditions at the time of the collision: the National Weather Service reported good visibility and winds gusting up to 29 mph (47 kph) around the crash. An aviation safety expert said the ability of both crews to eject can depend on how the aircraft collide and whether the pilots have enough time after the initial contact.
Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety expert, said it was “really striking to see” that both crews were able to eject, adding that the collision appeared to have left the aircraft “intact and kind of stick to each other” before they fell. Guzzetti also suggested that “it appears to be a pilot issue” and that formation flying requires the timing and positioning to be “just right to prevent exactly this kind of thing,” while aviation safety executive John Cox said air show flying involves “very little tolerance.”
Cox said “Air show flying is demanding. It has very little tolerance,” while noting that the pilots performing are among the best and that he was glad “everybody was able to get out.” The report said investigators may be able to gather early information quickly because the crews survived and will be able to tell investigators what they saw and experienced, and that the Navy will lead the investigation.
The report also noted that the air show industry has been working to improve safety for years and cited past examples, including a 2022 fatal collision between two vintage military planes at an event in Dallas that killed six people, and an earlier Thunderbirds crash in 2003 in which the pilot steered the plane away from the crowd and ejected less than a second before it hit the ground. The report added that the Iran war has led to cancellations of some air shows this year at bases where military units are flying missions related to the conflict.
The show’s cancellation and the base lockdown came after the midair collision and crashes Sunday; officials said the rest of the event would not proceed while the investigation continued.
Everyone cited in this report is named in the source.