Four crew eject safely after two U.S. Navy jets collide at Idaho Air show

All four crew members ejected safely after two U.S. Navy jets collided and crashed Sunday during an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho.

The aircraft, two EA-18G Growlers from Electronic Attack Squadron 129 at Whidbey Island, Washington, were performing an aerial demonstration when they made contact, said Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet.

Both crews parachuted to the ground and were in stable condition, base officials said. No one on the ground was injured. The base was locked down immediately after the crash and the remainder of the show was canceled.

Videos posted by spectators show four parachutes opening as the jets fall together near the base, about 80 km south of Boise. The planes exploded into a fireball on impact.

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Shane Ogden, who was filming the display, said the jets appeared to stay locked together after contact.

“It looks like they struck each other in a very unique fashion to cause them to remain intact and kind of stick to each other and that very well could have saved them,” said aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti. He noted that crews rarely get a chance to eject in midair collisions.

Aviation safety expert John Cox said air show flying leaves little margin for error, but credited the pilots’ skill for the safe ejections.

The EA-18G Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet equipped for electronic warfare. The Navy is leading the investigation.

The incident occurred during the Gunfighter Skies air show, headlined by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. The event was the first at the base since 2018. Visibility was good at the time, with winds gusting up to 47 kph, according to the National Weather Service.

Air show safety has improved in the U.S. over the past decade, with no fatalities in 2024 or 2025, according to the International Council of Air Shows. The last spectator death at a U.S. air show was in 1952.