Fighter Jet Crashes at MCAS Miramar

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A military fighter jet whose pilot had just safely

ejected plunged to the ground in an open area at Marine Corps Air Station

Miramar Friday and exploded in flames.

The Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II went down off Miramar Road near

Mitscher Way about 10 a.m. Friday, according to the base's public-affairs

office and firefighting officials.

The crash of the high-tech aircraft, which sparked a small brush fire,

occurred near the flight line at the northern San Diego military station,

said 1st Lt. Blake Starbuck, a base spokesman.

In a post on social media, a person who described witnessing the

accident while driving on nearby Interstate 15 wrote that the aircraft flew

over the freeway with its cockpit open before plummeting to earth in ``a big

fireball'' as a parachute carrying the ejected pilot floated down toward the

ground.

Paramedics took the flier to a hospital for treatment of non-life-

threatening injuries, Marine Corps officials told news crews.

Firefighters had the several-acre vegetation blaze ignited by the

accident extinguished as of early afternoon, officials said.

It was not immediately clear why the pilot ejected from the warplane.

The F-35B, the world's first supersonic stealth aircraft with short-

takeoff and vertical-landing capabilities, carries a price tag of $109 million,

according to aviation-news outlet AeroTime.

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