4 crew members eject safely after two Navy jets crash during air show in
Idaho
[May 18, 2026]
By REBECCA BOONE and MATTHEW BROWN
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — All four crew members ejected safely after two Navy
jets collided and crashed Sunday during an air show at the Mountain Home
Air Force Base in western Idaho, officials said.
The collision involved two U.S. Navy EA18-G Growlers from the Electronic
Attack Squadron 129 in Whidbey Island, Washington, said Cmdr. Amelia
Umayam, spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
The aircraft were performing an aerial demonstration when the crash
occurred, Umayam said in a statement. The four crew members from both
jets safely ejected and the crash was under investigation, she said.
The crew members were in stable condition, base officials said.
Nobody at the military base was hurt, said Kim Sykes, marketing director
with Silver Wings of Idaho, which helped to plan the air show.
“Everyone is safe and I think that’s the most important thing,” Sykes
said.
Planes fell to the ground together
The base said in a social media post that it was locked down immediately
following the crash. The remainder of the air show was canceled.
Videos posted online by spectators showed four parachutes opening in the
sky as the aircraft plummet to the ground near the base about 50 miles
(80 kilometers) south of Boise.
The EA-18G Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet
with sophisticated electronic warfare systems.
Shane Ogden said he was filming the two jets as they came close
together. A video he captured shows the two aircraft appear to make
contact and then spin in tandem as the crew members eject and their
parachutes open. The planes then fall together, exploding into a
fireball upon impact as the crew members drift to the ground nearby.
“I was just filming thinking they were going to split apart and that
happened and I filmed the rest,” Ogden said in a text message. He said
he left soon after the crash because he did not want to get in the way
of emergency responders.
Organizers said the popular air show that includes flying demonstrations
and parachute jumps is a celebration of aviation history and a look at
modern military capabilities. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds
demonstration squadron headlined the show both days.
The National Weather Service reported good visibility and winds gusting
up to 29 mph (47 kph) around the time of the crash.
Little room for error
It was remarkable both crews were able to eject from their planes, and
aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said that may have been possible
because of the way the planes collided and appeared to remain stuck
together in midair before falling to Earth. Crews usually don't have a
chance to eject in a midair collision, he said.
“It’s really striking to see,” Guzzetti said. “It looks like they struck
each other in a very unique fashion to cause them to remain intact and
kind of stick to each other and that very well could have saved them.”
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This still image taken from video shows a plume of smoke rising
above a plain near Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, where two
Navy jets collided at an air show on Sunday, May 17, 2026. (Lisa Van
Horne via AP)
“It appears to be a pilot issue to me. It doesn’t look like it was a
mechanical malfunction,” he added. “Rendezvousing with another
airplane in formation flight is challenging, and it has to be done
just right to prevent exactly this kind of thing.”
Aviation safety expert John Cox, who is CEO of Safety Operating
Systems, said the pilots who perform at air shows are among the
best, but there is little room for error.
“Air show flying is demanding. It has very little tolerance,” Cox
said. “The people who do it are very good and it’s a small margin
for error. I’m glad everybody was able to get out.”
This year's Gunfighter Skies event was the first at the base since
2018, when a hang glider pilot died in a crash during an air show
performance.
In 2003, a Thunderbirds aircraft crashed while attempting a
maneuver. The pilot, who was not hurt, was able to steer the plane
away from the crowd and eject less than a second before it hit the
ground.
The air show industry has been working to improve safety for years
at the roughly 200 events held each year in the U.S. The last fatal
crash at an air show came in 2022 when two vintage military planes
collided at an event in Dallas and killed six people.
John Cudahy, president and CEO of the International Council of Air
Shows, said that 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 per year, he said. There were no air show
deaths in 2025 or 2024, and a spectator hasn’t been killed at an air
show in the U.S. since 1952.
“Safety wise we’ve enjoyed really an unprecedented term of few
accidents,” Cudahy said.
Investigators may be able to quickly get an idea of what happened in
Sunday's crash because the crews of both planes survived and will be
able to tell investigators what they saw and experienced before the
collision. The Navy will lead the investigation, so there won’t be
as much information shared publicly as in civilian crashes.
The Iran war has led to the cancellation of some air shows this year
at bases where military units are flying missions related to the
conflict.
___
Brown reported from Billings, Montana. Associated Press writers Josh
Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles
contributed.
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