LOS ANGELES (AP) – A U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed Wednesday in Death Valley National Park, injuring seven people who were at a scenic overlook where aviation enthusiasts watch military pilots speeding low through a chasm dubbed Star Wars Canyon, officials said.
The crash sent dark smoke billowing in the air, said Aaron Cassell, who was working at his family’s Panamint Springs Resort about 10 miles (16 kilometers) away and was the first to report the crash to park dispatch.
“I just saw a black mushroom cloud go up,” Cassell told The Associated Press. “Typically you don’t see a mushroom cloud in the desert.”
A search was underway for the pilot of the single-seat F/A-18 Super Hornet that was on a routine training mission, said Lt. Cmdr. Lydia Bock, spokeswoman for Naval Air Station Lemoore in California’s Central Valley.
This July 17, 2019, photo provided by the U.S. Air Force shows a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet in flight after refueling over the Pacific Ocean near the coast of Brisbane, Australia. The Navy said Wednesday, July 31, that an F/A-18 Super Hornet jet similar to this one has crashed in the California desert and a search-and-rescue helicopter is en route to the scene, about 60 miles north of the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake. (Senior Airman Elora J. Martinez/U.S. Air Force via AP)“The status of the pilot is unknown at this time,” Bock said about four hours after the crash.