A lucky-to-be-alive Marine pilot covered in blood miraculously walked away relatively unscathed from a fiery fighter jet crash in Washington state and casually said into a phone “Hey, buddy, I just crashed,” newly released video shows.
The battered and bloodied pilot, assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing in Miramar, Ca., is seen on the phone to 911 when he approaches responding deputies on the side of a road near the crash site on June 13, in the footage released by the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office.
“That’s an F-18,” the pilot tells the deputies. “Well, that was an F-18.”
“We were doing circles over the lake, doing some low-level training…and then I tucked in, and I’m not sure exactly,” the Marine explained.
“Honestly, I’m a little frazzled.”
The fighter jet had slammed into a mountainside near Rimrock Lake, approximately 55 miles southeast of Seattle during military training exercises, which sent a plume of black smoke into the blue summer sky and sparked a wildfire, ABC News reported.
“You hit the tree bad, bud,” a witness quipped.
The bloodied pilot is later seen alerting others to the fiery wreck.
“Hey, buddy, I just crashed,” he said, according to the outlet.
The pilot explained that he went through some trees on the way down after ejecting while discussing his bloody injuries with the officers, which were suspected to be parachute lacerations on his face.
At the time of the crash, the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing said in a news release that the pilot was conducting routine training when the jet experienced a “non-fatal aviation mishap.”
The name of the pilot has not been released.
The crash remains under investigation.
