A Marine walks out of the woods with a bloodied face and a phone in his hand, 911 already dialled. A county deputy, not quite sure what he is looking at, asks the obvious question: what kind of jet is that? The pilot glances back toward the column of black smoke on the mountainside and answers with the understatement of the year.
“That’s an F-18,” he says. “Well — that was an F-18.”
That exchange, caught on a Yakima County sheriff’s body camera and released on 14 August 2026, is the extraordinary human coda to a crash that happened two months earlier — and the pilot’s calm is the most remarkable thing in it.
Quick Facts
Aircraft: U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet
Crash: 13 June 2026, into a mountainside near Rimrock Lake, Washington (~55 miles SE of Seattle)
Pilot: assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, Miramar, California
Injuries: minor facial lacerations; the pilot ejected before impact
Aftermath: the wreck sparked a wildfire on the mountainside
Footage: body-camera video released by the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office on 14 August 2026
“We Were Doing Circles Over the Lake”
The F/A-18 Hornet went down on 13 June, slamming into high ground near Rimrock Lake during a low-level training sortie and throwing up a plume of black smoke that started a fire on the slope. The pilot ejected shortly before impact, came down under his parachute — later seen snagged in a tree — and walked out to find help.
On the bodycam, he is shaken but lucid, explaining what little he knows: “We were doing circles over the lake, doing some low-level training. And then I tucked in, and I’m not sure exactly. Honestly, I’m a little frazzled.” A bystander, taking in the smoke and the blood, offers the kind of feedback only a stranger can: “You hit the tree bad, bud.”
The Yakima County Sheriff’s Office bodycam footage of the pilot after the crash.
“Hey, Buddy, I Just Crashed”
The moment that has stuck with everyone who has watched the clip comes when the pilot phones someone in his squadron to break the news. No panic, no drama — just four flat words: “Hey, buddy, I just crashed.” It is the sort of line a fighter pilot’s training is supposed to produce: eject, survive, communicate, stay calm.
What Happens Next
The pilot walked away with minor cuts to his face — a reminder that a working ejection seat is one of the great life-savers in military aviation. The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing described the accident as a “non-fatal aviation mishap”, and the cause is still under investigation. What the aging Marine Hornet fleet does not have is time on its side; the type is being steadily replaced by the F-35.
For now, the lasting image is a bloodied Marine on a rural road, phone in hand, telling a friend he just wrote off a fighter jet — and sounding, all things considered, remarkably okay about it.
Sources: ABC News; Yakima County Sheriff’s Office; Military Times; Task & Purpose; 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.
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