On a Friday afternoon in San Diego, a $109 million Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighter fell from the sky near the storied grounds of Miramar airbase, leaving behind smoke, debris, and an open question about the fragility of even the most sophisticated instruments of war. The pilot survived — his ejection seat performing its singular, life-preserving purpose — and was carried to safety in stable condition. The loss of a single aircraft is a small wound in a program measured in trillions, yet it arrives as the eighth such incident in a year still unfinished, inviting a reckoning with whether the
F-35B fighter jet crashes near San Diego; pilot safely ejects
Pilot ejected safely with non-life-threatening injuries; no fatalities reported.