Mid-air collision between two US jets at airshow ends without fatalities in Idaho
The military base was locked down following the accident, and State Route SH-167 will remain closed for several days between Simco Road and SH-67 while investigators carry out their work
Two US Navy EA-18G Growler jets collided in mid-air on Sunday during an aerial demonstration at Mountain Home Air Force Base in the state of Idaho, with no fatalities reported. The four crew members aboard the aircraft ejected in time and were evaluated by medical personnel at the scene, said Naval Air Forces Pacific Fleet spokesperson Amelia Umayam. No injuries were reported among base personnel or among spectators of the Gunfighter Skies airshow, during which the incident occurred.
The two aircraft belong to Electronic Attack Squadron 129 (VAQ-129), based at Whidbey Island, in the state of Washington. Footage captured by spectator Shane Odgen, posted on social media and circulated by the AP news agency, shows the two aircraft approaching, making contact, and plunging to the ground in a joint spin, while the four parachutes opened in the sky seconds before impact, which generated a fireball visible for several kilometres. The military base was locked down following the accident, and State Route SH-167 will remain closed for several days between Simco Road and SH-67 while investigators carry out their work, the Idaho Transportation Department reported.
The National Weather Service reported good visibility and winds gusting up to 47 kilometres per hour at the time of the incident. The headline act of the show was the US Air Force Thunderbirds aerobatic team, which performed across both days of the event, organized by Silver Wings of Idaho. This year’s edition marked the return of Gunfighter Skies after an eight-year pause: the previous edition, in 2018, ended with the death of a hang glider pilot during a performance.
The president and chief executive of the International Council of Air Shows, John Cudahy, said the sector is going through an unprecedented period of few accidents in the United States, where some two hundred events are held annually. According to his data, the historical average of deaths at airshows fell from roughly two per year to one over the past decade, and no fatalities were recorded in either 2024 or 2025. The last multiple-fatality crash occurred in 2022 in Dallas, when the collision of two vintage military aircraft killed six.
The EA-18G Growler is the electronic warfare variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet and is the US Navy’s main carrier-based platform for the suppression of enemy air defenses. Aircraft of the same type form part of the embarked air wing of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz, currently deployed to the South Atlantic as part of the Southern Seas 2026 exercise, which this month included maneuvers off the coasts of Uruguay and Argentina.