US fighter jet crashes near California military base

A US F-35 fighter jet crashed Friday near a military base in San Diego, but the pilot was able to eject before impact, officials said.”There was an aviation mishap involving a Marine Corps F-35B in the vicinity” of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar at about 10am (1700 GMT), a spokesman for the base told the media.”The pilot was ejected and has been recovered.”A later statement from the military base said the pilot had been transported to a medical facility “in stable condition for evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.”Footage circulated on social media showing a plume of smoke rising from the aircraft, as firefighters were deployed to douse the flames.MCAS Miramar is known around the world as the one-time home of the US Navy’s “Top Gun” school for elite pilots, immortalized in the 1986 film “Top Gun” starring Tom Cruise.Each F-35B, the variant of the stealth fighter jet with vertical takeoff and landing capability, costs about $109 million, according to maker Lockheed Martin.Agence France-Presse