Pilot ejects as fighter jet crashes into Washington mountain, sparks fire

A Marine Corps fighter jet crashed into wooded terrain near Rimrock Lake in Yakima County on Saturday, sending a brush fire up a mountainside east of Mount Rainier and forcing emergency crews to clear the area. The pilot ejected safely and was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, local officials said.

The crash happened in forested country south of Mount Rainier National Park, where dry timber and steep slopes can turn an aircraft accident into a fast-moving ground fire. Witnesses and fire officials described the jet making “popping sounds” before it went down around noon, with one local report placing the crash at about 12:15 p.m.

Officials linked the aircraft to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego and identified it as an F/A-18 Hornet. Marine Corps sources described the incident as a “nonfatal mishap,” and local reporting placed the jet with Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, during a training flight near Rimrock Lake.

The Naches Fire Department said the pilot was safely ejected and transported to a nearby hospital. The Yakima County Sheriff’s Office said the pilot had minor injuries. Fire crews from local, state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service and the Washington Department of Natural Resources, converged on the crash site as flames spread through the woods.

The fire response included evacuations of nearby campgrounds and road closures as crews worked to keep the blaze away from buildings. Emergency teams stayed on scene through the afternoon, and water tenders and other apparatus were expected to remain involved in mop-up operations into Sunday, June 14.

The crash underscored the risk built into military training flights over public lands, where an in-flight emergency can quickly become a wildfire and a community safety issue. In incidents like this, the immediate priority is rescuing the pilot and containing the fire, while military investigators later sort through the wreckage, flight conditions and maintenance records to determine what sent the aircraft down.