All four crew members ejected safely after two Navy jets collided and crashed Sunday during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho, officials said.
Two were involved in the collision US Navy EA18-G Growlers from the 129th Electronic Attack Squadron on Whidbey Island, Wash., said Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, spokeswoman for Naval Air Forces, US Pacific Fleet.
The plane was performing an aerial demonstration when the crash occurred, Umayam said in a statement. She said the four crew members from both planes ejected safely and were being evaluated by medical personnel. The accident was under investigation, she said.
No one on the military base was injured, said Kim Sykes, director of marketing at Silver Wings of Idaho, which helped plan the air show.
“Everybody’s safe and I think that’s the most important thing,” Sykes said.
The base said in a post on social media that it was closed after the incident.
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Videos posted online by onlookers showed four parachutes opening in the sky as the plane touched down near the base about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boise.
Shane Ogden said he was filming the two planes as they approached. A video he captured shows the two planes appear to make contact and then spin together as the crew members retract and their parachutes open. The planes then crash together, exploding in a fireball upon impact as the crew members fall to the ground nearby.
“I was just filming thinking they were going to break up and it happened and I filmed the rest,” Ogden said in a text message. He said he left immediately after the crash because he didn’t want to get in the way of emergency responders.
Organizers said the popular air show, which includes flying demonstrations and skydiving, is a celebration of aviation history and a look at modern military capabilities. The US Air Force Thunderbirds Demonstration Squadron headlined the show both days.
The National Weather Service reported good visibility and winds of up to 29 mph (47 km/h) around the time of the crash.
This year’s Gunfighter Skies event was the first at the base since 2018, when a jet fighter died in a crash during an air show.
In 2003, a Thunderbirds plane crashed while trying to maneuver. The pilot, who was not injured, was able to steer the plane away from the crowd and get out less than a second before it hit the ground.
The air show industry has been working to improve safety for years at the approximately 200 events held annually in the US. The last fatal crash at an air show occurred in 2022 when two vintage military jets collided at an event in Dallas, killing six people.
John Cudahy, president and CEO of the International Air Show Council, said there used to be an average of about two deaths a year at a U.S. air show. But over the past decade, the average has been closer to one death a year, he said. There were no airshow deaths in 2025 or 2024, and a spectator has not been killed at an airshow since 1952.
“In terms of safety, we’ve really enjoyed an unprecedented period of few accidents,” Cudahy said.
&copies 2026 The Canadian Press
