F-35 crashes near Lemoore, pilot ejects safely after latest in string of fighter jet crashes

The crash of an F-35 stealth fighter jet near Visalia joins a list of accidents in recent years that have highlighted controversy surrounding the aircraft.

The U.S. Navy said July 30 that the jet crashed near Naval Air Station Lemoore about 35 miles southwest of Visalia in Central California, and its pilot safely ejected.

First responders searched for the pilot and found him with a parachute in a nearby field. He had ejected from the F-35C fighter jet, which is attached to the squadron known as the VFA-125 “Rough Raiders,” according to the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office.

Firefighters bulldozed a path to the jet so fire engines could get close enough to extinguish the fire, the agency said. The cause of the crash was still under investigation and no further details were provided.

In 2022, a Lemoore Naval Air Station pilot died after his jet crashed in a remote area of the California desert during a routine training. U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Richard Bullock was training in an F-18 Super Hornet on June 3, 2022, when he crashed near Trona, about 25 miles east of Ridgecrest.

In 2014, Lt. Nathan Poloski, 26, originally of Lake Arrowhead, was piloting one of two F/A-18C Hornets from NAS Lemoore that collided 250 nautical miles off the coast of Wake Island, about 2,300 miles west of Honolulu. The other pilot was rescued but Poloski was killed, at the time the third pilot from NAS Lemoore to have died in action since April 2011, when a jet flown by Lt. Matthew Lowe crashed near the base.

Wednesday’s crash is one of a dozen such F-35 accidents since 2018, most of which involved U.S.-operated jets, and comes at a time of heightened scrutiny of the entire aviation industry after a series of commercial, military and small-aircraft disasters in 2025, said Blake Stringer, director of the Center for Aviation Studies, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University.

“That should be an unacceptable number of crashes,” Stringer said. “It’s an opportunity for experts to analyze data, look for the trends and statistical patterns and determine what recommended course of actions (is) needed to increase the safety.”

F-35s, stealth fighter jets known for being the military’s most expensive weapon system and credited with revolutionizing modern American warfare, are still a relatively new program for the U.S. military, Stringer said. They were created with affordability in mind so different branches of the military could use a standardized airframe with the ability…