2 Navy Fighter Jets Collide in Owens Valley

Two Navy fighter jets apparently collided near Lone Pine and crashed in the Owens Valley shortly before noon on Monday, officials reported. The pilot of one jet parachuted to safety. The fate of the other was not immediately determined.

Lt. Cmdr. Gene Okamoto, public affairs officer at the Pacific Missile Test Center at Point Mugu, where the F/A-18 Hornet jets were based, said both planes were on a routine training mission near the China Lake Naval Weapons Center when the accident occurred at about 11:45 a.m.

The planes fell to earth about 40 miles apart, according to Deputy Matthew Miller of the Inyo County Sheriff’s Department in Independence.

Miller said one slammed into some sand dunes about 2 miles east of Olancha and the other crashed and burned in foothills about 8 miles northeast of Independence.

“The pilot from the plane near Olancha ejected and was found on foot at the scene. He apparently had no injuries,” Miller said. “There was a lot of smoke and flame at the other one. We don’t know yet whether the other pilot got out.”

As a precaution, the pilot found near Olancha was examined at Southern Inyo Hospital in Lone Pine.

Neither pilot was immediately identified.

Okamoto said the twin-engine, single-seat planes were both from the VX4 Fighter Squadron at Point Mugu. He described the $18-million Hornet as the Navy’s “primary fighter-attack aircraft.” About 540 of the McDonnell Douglas-built planes are in service.