A Texas Air National Guard F-16 crashed in rural northern Michigan on Thursday afternoon, erupting in a massive fireball during a routine training mission.

The pilot ejected before impact and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Military officials have not released the pilot’s identity or disclosed any injury details.

Video from the scene shows flames and a towering column of black smoke rising over Blair Township in Grand Traverse County.

The first footage captured the enormous plume moments after the jet went down:

The Gateway Pundit reported that the aircraft was flying from the Air National Guard’s Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena when the incident occurred. The Texas Military Department identified the jet as a 149th Fighter Wing F-16 Fighting Falcon and described the flight as a routine training mission.

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The pilot was able to eject before the aircraft slammed into the ground. Emergency personnel transported the pilot to a nearby hospital, but the military withheld the aviator’s name and medical details under its privacy rules.

The first public reports placed the crash in Grand Traverse County shortly after the Thursday afternoon impact. The burning wreckage forced authorities to establish a safety perimeter while crews dealt with the fire, scattered debris and the risk posed by military aircraft components.

The crash occurred near County Road 633 and Blair Townhall Road, south of Traverse City. Emergency crews converged on the area as residents reported repeated explosions from the wreckage.

Michigan State Police confirmed the aircraft type and said troopers were assisting the Grand Traverse County Sheriff’s Office at the scene:

Michigan Public reported that local authorities ordered people within one mile of the crash site to evacuate. Grand Traverse County Emergency Management directed residents away from the intersection of County Road 633 and Jefferson Place while first responders secured the area.

A nearby resident said the impact initially sounded like a traffic accident. Her husband drove toward the noise and saw aircraft debris scattered in a field while explosions continued and heavy smoke billowed into the sky.

Additional video showed the scale of the fire and the emergency response around the wreckage:

The 149th Fighter Wing is based at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas and trains Air National Guard F-16 pilots. The unit had deployed aircraft and personnel to Alpena for Operation Northern Cactus, a readiness exercise designed to test its ability to establish flight operations away from its home station.

DVIDS published official Air National Guard photographs of the wing’s F-16s on the Alpena flightline Wednesday, one day before the crash. The images document the same unit at the same Michigan training center, but officials have not identified the aircraft that went down by tail number.

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The F-16 is a single-engine multirole fighter, making the pilot’s successful ejection the critical piece of good news from an otherwise frightening accident.

The cause remains unknown. Military investigators will examine the wreckage and flight data before deciding whether the jet suffered a mechanical failure, a bird strike or another in-flight emergency.

The investigation will now have to determine what happened in the final moments of the mission. For now, the confirmed facts are that the pilot got out, no injuries on the ground have been reported, and local and military responders moved quickly to isolate the dangerous wreckage.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

 

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