A fighter jet with the Air Force’s elite Thunderbirds demonstration squadron crashed in the Southern California desert, but the pilot managed to eject safely, the military said. The pilot was being treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. The F-16C Fighting Falcon crashed around 10:45 am on Wednesday during a training mission “over controlled airspace in California”, according to a statement from Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The fire department said it had responded to an “aircraft emergency” near Trona, an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert about 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. In 2022, a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed near Trona, killing the pilot.
