Skip to footer

Military jet crashes in Arizona: Marine pilot ejects safely

Military jet crashes in Arizona: A AV-8B Harrier jet crashed in the desert Friday. The military reports the US Marine pilot of the jet only received a cut on his nose.

  • By Staff Associated Press

| Phoenix

A Marine Corps Harrier jet crashed on tribal land south of Phoenix on Friday, but authorities said the pilot was able to eject safely.

Television footage showed the charred wreckage scattered in several pieces in a remote desert area on the Gila River Indian Community.

Parts of the plane still were smoldering an hour after the crash, which occurred about 2:30 p.m. MST. The pilot of the AV-8B Harrier ejected and was found conscious about two miles southwest of the crash site.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the wreckage was near the Sacaton Rest Area, about 40 miles southeast of Phoenix.

The AV-8B Harrier was based out of Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, but base officials referred all calls to the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California.

Miramar officials released a statement Friday night stating that an investigation will be conducted to determine the cause of the crash.

A tweet posted on Miramar's website read: "Thankfully the pilot is safe and doing well."

A spokesman for the Gila River Indian Community said the pilot was the only person aboard and suffered only a nose laceration.

The pilot, whose name wasn't released, was taken to a hospital for observation.

Tribal police Detective Robert Hawkes said the crash scene was secured for more than a mile "so any evidence is kept intact." He said the cause of the crash was not yet known.

Among the most recent Harrier jet crashes: In July 2010, a US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier crashed in an unpopulated area of the Ocala National Forest in Florida. And in March 2011, a US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier deployed with 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) embarked aboard amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD-4) crashed into the water during takeoff for a routine training flight while operating in the Arabian Sea. And in July 2012, a US Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier crashed shortly after take off for a routine training flight over an unpopulated area near Felicity, Calif.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Military jet crashes in Arizona: Marine pilot ejects safely
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0510/Military-jet-crashes-in-Arizona-Marine-pilot-ejects-safely
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe