A USMC AV-8B Harrier went down in Craven County, North Carolina around 6:15pm local time on Monday, May 20th, 2019. The pilot is said to have ejected from the stricken jet and survived.
The jet belonged to 2nd Marine Air Wing based out of Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in the state. Details about the incident and the conditions on the ground where the Harrier went down remain very limited, but it comes as part of a new spate of U.S. tactical aircraft crashes that have occurred in recent weeks. These have included the loss of a T-6, a T-45, and an F-16 that careened into a warehouse in California.
This latest group of major mishaps follows a terrible year marked by numerous U.S. military aircraft crashes in 2018, including the loss of another USMC Harrier in Djibouti just over a year ago.
We will update this post as more information comes available.
UPDATE: 9:15pm PDT—
Some good news to report—there are no indications that anyone on the ground was hurt at this time. The Harrier crashed just east of MCAS Cherry Point in a wooded area. Local NBC affiliate WITN has reported the following:
Amber Lynn Onizuk lives near the crash site and heard it all. She tells WITN, “I was outside we were headed to bible study. We heard the Harrier flying and then a loud crash and I said that plane just crashed. We drove up the street and everybody was running outside. We saw smoke in the field where we just had the wildfire. We ran into the woods to see if we could help and he was standing there. He said he was fine and said he had ejected. He said he was flying for 45 minutes and knew something was wrong.”
A big thanks to our won @Aerialimaging for shooting over some great info for this update!
We will continue to update this story as more info comes available.
Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com