{"id":980391,"date":"2026-05-18T10:58:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/two-navy-growlers-collide-mid-air-over-idaho-all-four-crew-survive\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T10:59:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T08:59:21","slug":"two-navy-growlers-collide-mid-air-over-idaho-all-four-crew-survive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/two-navy-growlers-collide-mid-air-over-idaho-all-four-crew-survive\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Navy Growlers Collide Mid-Air Over Idaho \u2014 All Four Crew Survive"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<p>At about 12:10 in the afternoon on Sunday, the crowd at the Gunfighter Skies Air Show in Idaho was watching two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers fly the kind of low, sharp formation pass that demo teams have practised thousands of times. A few seconds later, the two jets were locked together in the sky, pitching nose-up and stalling. Then both canopies blew off. Four ejection seats fired in rapid sequence. The two Growlers \u2014 still fused together \u2014 cartwheeled into the ground two miles northwest of Mountain Home Air Force Base and exploded.<\/p><p>All four aviators survived. The base went into lockdown. The rest of the show was cancelled. And within minutes, spectator phone video of one of the most dramatic mid-air collisions in recent U.S. naval aviation history was everywhere on the internet.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-radius:8px;padding:18px 22px;margin:20px 0 28px;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF\"><div style=\"font-weight:700;color:#333;margin-bottom:10px;font-size:15px;letter-spacing:0.3px\">QUICK FACTS<\/div><table style=\"border-collapse:collapse;width:100%;font-size:15px;line-height:1.5\"><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#555;font-weight:600;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:top\">Event<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0\">Mid-air collision at Gunfighter Skies Air Show<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#555;font-weight:600;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:top\">Date \/ time<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0\">17 May 2026, approx. 12:10 MDT<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#555;font-weight:600;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:top\">Location<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0\">Approx. 2 mi northwest of Mountain Home AFB, Idaho<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#555;font-weight:600;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:top\">Aircraft<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0\">Two Boeing EA-18G Growlers<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#555;font-weight:600;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:top\">Unit<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0\">VAQ-129 &#8220;Vikings&#8221; Growler Demo Team, NAS Whidbey Island, WA<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#555;font-weight:600;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:top\">Crew<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0\">Four aviators (pilot + EWO per jet) \u2014 all ejected safely<\/td><\/tr><tr><td style=\"padding:6px 12px 6px 0;color:#555;font-weight:600;white-space:nowrap;vertical-align:top\">Status<\/td><td style=\"padding:6px 0\">Investigation underway; air show cancelled, base locked down<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/div>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The collision: five seconds from formation pass to fireball<\/h2><p>The two Growlers were assigned to the \u201cVikings\u201d of Electronic Attack Squadron VAQ-129 \u2014 the U.S. Navy\u2019s sole Growler training squadron, based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington. The squadron stood up an official Growler Demonstration Team a few years ago, and it has become one of the most striking acts on the U.S. air show circuit: two slender, twin-engined jets flying tight, slow, deliberate formation work that emphasises just how nimble the Super Hornet airframe is at low speed.<\/p><p>Multiple spectator videos posted to social media show the two aircraft in a close pass when they suddenly come into contact. Within an instant, the jets appear locked together, one on top of the other. The pair pitches sharply upward, stalls, and then the ejection seats fire \u2014 four of them, less than five seconds after the initial impact, according to airshow blogs reviewing the footage. The two Growlers, still entangled, cartwheel toward the ground and disintegrate in a fireball of black smoke.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=1275665814  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/a\/a7\/Boeing_EA-18G_Growler_NL-530_Spangdahlem_2022.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&#038;utm_campaign=imageinfo&#038;utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled\" alt=\"EA-18G Growler\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A US Navy EA-18G Growler \u2014 the same type that crashed at Mountain Home. The Growler is the only dedicated tactical electronic-attack jet in US service today. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure style=\"margin:24px 0\"><div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;border-radius:8px\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qfvVoow5Jos\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:8px;font-style:italic\">Local TV news coverage of the mid-air collision at Mountain Home AFB on 17 May 2026.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">All four crew ejected \u2014 and walked away<\/h2><p>Each Growler flies with a crew of two: a pilot up front and an electronic warfare officer (EWO) in the back. The EA-18G\u2019s Martin-Baker SJU-17 ejection seat is rated to fire safely from zero altitude and zero airspeed up to roughly Mach 2 \u2014 a \u201czero-zero\u201d seat in pilot vernacular. The four crew separated cleanly from the wreckage and parachuted to the desert below.<\/p><p>Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, a spokesperson for Naval Air Forces U.S. Pacific Fleet, confirmed that all four aircrew were being evaluated by medical personnel but were not seriously injured. Col. David R. Gunter, commander of the 366th Fighter Wing that hosts Mountain Home AFB, summed up the official mood after the show was cancelled.<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><a href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/02\/Seal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_the_Navy.svg\/200px-Seal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_the_Navy.svg.png\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"flex-shrink:0\"><img data-opt-id=575151224  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/02\/Seal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_the_Navy.svg\/200px-Seal_of_the_United_States_Department_of_the_Navy.svg.png\" alt=\"Col. David R. Gunter\" style=\"width:96px;height:96px;border-radius:50%;object-fit:cover;object-position:center;display:block;border:2px solid #ddd\"><\/a><div><em>&ldquo;First and foremost, we are incredibly thankful that everyone involved in today\u2019s incident is safe.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Col. David R. Gunter<\/strong> &mdash; Commander, 366th Fighter Wing, Mountain Home AFB \u2014 17 May 2026 statement<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Why two jets in a demo formation can suddenly fuse together<\/h2><p>Demo-team mid-airs are exceptionally rare. The Navy has flown its Hornet and Super Hornet Tac Demo teams for decades without losing two aircraft in a single sequence. The last U.S. military demo-team mid-air involving the loss of both aircraft was the 1982 Thunderbirds \u201cDiamond Crash\u201d at Indian Springs \u2014 four T-38s into the Nevada desert, four pilots killed. By that grim historical yardstick, Sunday\u2019s outcome at Mountain Home \u2014 four ejections, zero fatalities \u2014 is remarkable.<\/p><p>The aircraft involved are not yet identified by serial number. Both Growlers are expected to be total losses. With a unit fly-away cost of roughly $68 million for a current-build EA-18G \u2014 and with Boeing winding down the F\/A-18 line \u2014 these losses cannot be backfilled by new production. The Navy currently operates around 160 Growlers, and the type is the sole tactical airborne electronic-attack platform left in U.S. service after the EA-6B Prowler retirement.<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=499440895  data-opt-src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/8\/8a\/EA-18G_at_sunrise.jpg\/1280px-EA-18G_at_sunrise.jpg\"  decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20viewBox%3D%220%200%20100%%20100%%22%20width%3D%22100%%22%20height%3D%22100%%22%20xmlns%3D%22http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%22%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%22100%%22%20height%3D%22100%%22%20fill%3D%22transparent%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&#038;utm_campaign=imageinfo&#038;utm_content=thumbnail\" alt=\"EA-18G at sunrise\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">The EA-18G shares 90 percent of its airframe with the F\/A-18F Super Hornet but trades the 20 mm cannon and several internal systems for high-power jamming pods and signals-intercept gear. Photo: Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The investigation begins<\/h2><p>A standard Aircraft Mishap Investigation Board (AMIB) is now stood up under Naval Safety Command. It will pull cockpit voice recordings, flight-data telemetry, video, ground-radar tracks, and crew interviews. A Judge Advocate General (JAG) Manual investigation will run in parallel \u2014 the legal-administrative track that determines responsibility for aircraft loss and any disciplinary or compensation outcomes. Findings from both can take six to twelve months.<\/p><p>In the meantime, the Growler Demo Team is grounded. Air shows on its 2026 schedule, including upcoming weekends at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, will run without the act. And the Navy is asking the predictable question whenever two jets collide doing what they have done safely a thousand times before: <em>what changed?<\/em><\/p><p><em>Sources: USNI News, The War Zone, The Aviationist, Task &#038; Purpose, NBC News, military.com.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two EA-18G Growlers from VAQ-129 collided mid-air during the Gunfighter Skies Air Show at Mountain Home AFB on 17 May 2026. All four crew ejected and survived.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":980401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":"","_yoast_wpseo_title":"Two Navy EA-18G Growlers Collide at Mountain Home Air Show \u2014 All Crew Safe","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Two US Navy EA-18G Growlers from VAQ-129 collided mid-air at the Gunfighter Skies Air Show in Idaho on 17 May 2026. All four crew ejected safely.","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-980391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Two Navy EA-18G Growlers Collide at Mountain Home Air Show \u2014 All Crew Safe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two US Navy EA-18G Growlers from VAQ-129 collided mid-air at the Gunfighter Skies Air Show in Idaho on 17 May 2026. 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