Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Marine pilot ejects before crash in S.C.
BEAUFORT, S.C. — A military jet crashed a short distance from its base in South Carolina on Friday with the pilot ejecting safely and no one on the ground injured, authorities said.
The 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing F-35B, known as a Lightning II, crashed about 11:45 a.m. into an uninhabited marsh island near the Grays Hill community, authorities said.
The jet was based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort about 4 miles west of the crash site at Little Barnwell Island, the station said in a news release.
The Marine pilot ejected before the crash and was being checked for injuries, authorities said.
Video from the scene showed black smoke still rising from the island more than an hour after the crash. Military officials and local police secured the island and asked people to stay away from the area.
The Marine F-35B fighter jet was on a routine training mission.
The Marine version of the jet is capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings. One flew its first combat mission Thursday in Afghanistan.
In the past, F-35 jets have made emergency landings, experienced in-flight incidents, including oxygen deprivation among crews, and suffered from engine fires and other failures on the ground. But this is the first time the military has suffered a full-blown crash of an F-35 involving the ejection of a pilot.