Four crew members ejected safely after two Navy jets crash during air show in Idaho

“Everyone is safe and I think that’s the most important thing,” Sykes said.

The base said in a social media post that it was locked down following the incident.

Videos posted online by spectators showed four parachutes opening in the sky as the aircraft plummet to the ground near the base about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Boise.

Shane Ogden said he was filming the two jets as they came close together. A video he captured shows the two aircraft appear to make contact and then spin in tandem as the crew members eject and their parachutes open. The planes then fall together, exploding into a fireball upon impact as the crew members drop to the ground nearby.

“I was just filming thinking they were going to split apart and that happened and I filmed the rest,” Ogden said in a text message. He said he left soon after the crash because he did not want to get in the way of emergency responders.

Organizers said the popular air show that includes flying demonstrations and parachute jumps is a celebration of aviation history and a look at modern military capabilities. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron headlined the show both days.

The National Weather Service reported good visibility and winds gusting up to 29 mph (47 kph) around the time of the crash.

This year’s Gunfighter Skies event was the first at the base since 2018, when a hang glider died in a crash during an air show performance.

In 2003, a Thunderbirds aircraft crashed while attempting a maneuver. The pilot, who was not hurt, was able to steer the plane away from the crowd and eject less than a second before it hit the ground.

The air show industry has been working to improve safety for years at the roughly 200 events held each year in the U.S.. The last fatal crash at an air show came in 2022 when two vintage military planes collided at an event in Dallas and killed six people.

John Cudahy, president and CEO of the International Council of Air Shows, said that there used to be an average of about two deaths a year at a U.S. air show. But over the past decade, the average has been closer to one death per year, he said. There were no air show deaths in 2025 or 2024, and a spectator hasn’t been killed at an air show since 1952.

“Safety wise we’ve enjoyed really an unprecedented term of few accidents,” Cudahy said.

The Associated Press

by The Canadian Press

Four crew members ejected safely after two Navy jets crash during air show in Idaho

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