A U.S. military F-16 fighter jet crashed Thursday during a training flight in Michigan after what another military pilot said may have been a bird strike. The pilot ejected before the crash and was taken to a local hospital. “We have a possible mayday by wingman. I believe they may have taken a bird,” a military pilot told air traffic controllers in radio traffic captured by LiveATC.net.
The jet crashed in Grand Traverse County at around 2 p.m. local time. Video from the scene showed a fireball in a field near homes and a large plume of black smoke.
The pilot, who was the only person aboard, ejected before impact. No other injuries were reported, and authorities said the pilot was in stable condition and receiving treatment at a local hospital.
Another transmission indicated that the aircraft appeared to have lost engine power before the pilot ejected. “We do see a lot of black smoke, which we believe is the ejected F-16,” an air traffic controller said.
According to the Associated Press, the aircraft belonged to the Texas Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Wing and was participating in a training exercise from the Combat Readiness Training Center in Alpena, Michigan.
Authorities ordered residents and businesses within about one mile, or 1.6 kilometers, of the crash site to evacuate because of what officials described as a “hazardous chemical spill related to the plane crash.”
זירת ההתרסקות במישיגן
(צילום: ABC, Fred Sobeck)
All Texas Air National Guard aircraft in Michigan for the training exercise were immediately grounded. The cause of the crash has not been determined, and officials have not confirmed that a bird strike brought down the aircraft.
Shellie Doornbos and her husband were driving home when they saw the fireball. “We could hear the echoes of explosions,” they told CNN. They said they asked a police officer what they were hearing and were told that a fighter jet had crashed and that the explosions were ammunition.
Fred Sobeck, 65, told the AP that he was driving along the road when he saw “a huge ball of fire in the field” near homes.
The U.S. military is investigating the circumstances of the crash. CNN noted that if a bird strike is ultimately found to have caused the accident, such incidents are not unusual. Thousands of aircraft in the United States are struck by birds and other wildlife each year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s wildlife strike database. In Traverse City alone, 41 wildlife strikes were reported in 2025.