Officials say a pilot is safe after an F-35C fighter jet crashed near a central California naval installation. The sheriff’s office says the pilot was found with a parachute in a nearby field.<\/b>
\nA pilot was safe after an F-35C fighter jet crashed near a central California naval installation on Wednesday, officials said.
Authorities received a report that a military jet had crashed and was engulfed in flames around 6:40 p.m., the Fresno County Sheriff\u2019s Office said in a social media post. Responding deputies, firefighters, California Highway Patrol officers and EMS personnel found the wreckage in a cotton field just north of Lemoore Naval Air Station. The pilot, who had ejected, was found with a parachute in a nearby field, the sheriff\u2019s office said. He was flown to a hospital for evaluation and was expected to be OK.
Firefighters used a bulldozer to cut a path to the jet so fire engines could get close enough to extinguish the fire, the sheriff\u2019s office said.
Naval Air Station Lemoore confirmed that the F-35C attached to the VFA-125 Rough Raiders went down near the installation. The pilot was safe after successfully ejecting and no other personnel were affected, the installation said in a statement posted on social media.<\/p>\n