F-35B stealth fighter crashes at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, pilot ejected

MIRAMAR, SAN DIEGO (KABC) -- A military jet crashed Friday morning near the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, according to military officials.

The F-35B fighter jet was approaching the runway around 10 a.m. when it crashed short of the airfield, according to information obtained by ABC News. The pilot ejected before impact.

The pilot, who was the only person on board, was transported to a local medical facility and was reported to be in stable condition while being treated for non-life-threatening injuries, according to the Marine Corps.

Video from the scene showed a plume of black smoke rising from the wreckage in a dirt field, with multiple military and firefighting vehicles and personnel nearby. What appeared to be white fire retardant covered the ground, and at least one person was spraying the wreckage with a fire hose.

Local firefighters responded to a brush fire that ignited at the crash site.

"Every year or so we're seeing one or two F-35 crashes, but we should point out why. The F-35 is going to replace all of the fighter aircraft essentially in the U.S. inventory," ABC News senior Pentagon reporter Luis Martinez said.

Martinez said the aircraft was most likely on a training flight, though that has not been confirmed. Training flights occur daily at Miramar.

Marine Corps Air Station Miramar was once home to the Navy's fighter pilot training school featured in the original "Top Gun" movie and was known as "Fightertown USA." The school relocated to Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada in 1996 after the base was transferred to the Marine Corps.

The U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force collectively operate more than 630 F-35 aircraft, according to a 2024 Government Accountability Office analysis. The report estimated the program's total cost at about $2 trillion. The F-35B is one of several variants of the aircraft and is designed for short takeoffs and vertical landings. A single F-35B costs about $109 million.

A Marine Corps statement described Friday's crash as a "Class A mishap," the military's most severe accident category. The designation is used when damages exceed $2 million, an aircraft is destroyed or a service member is killed.

According to Air Force Safety Center statistics, there have been at least 17 other Class A mishaps involving F-35 aircraft in the Air Force since 2000.

At least seven other military aircraft mishaps have occurred in the United States this year, according to the Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety Network database.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.