Marine F-35B Destroyed in Fiery Crash on Approach to MCAS Miramar
A US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II crashed and burned near the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego on July 31, 2026. The pilot ejected and survived, and the Marines classified the accident as a Class A mishap.
A US Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II crashed and caught fire near the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego on the morning of July 31, 2026. The pilot ejected and survived.
The aircraft came down at around 10:00 local time while on approach to the base. Footage broadcast by local and national outlets showed blackened wreckage on the ground close to the runways, the jet's wedge-shaped tail section still recognizable, as firefighting crews doused the remains. The impact started a small brush fire, which base and county fire units contained.
A spokesman for the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing confirmed that the pilot ejected and was taken for medical care with minor injuries, and said the aircraft belonged to Marine Aircraft Group 11, the wing's fixed-wing group at Miramar. The Marines classified the accident as a Class A mishap, the service's most severe category, which covers any event involving a fatality, a permanent total disability, or damage of $2 million or more. An F-35B carries a unit cost of roughly $109 million.
No cause has been released. Class A mishaps are examined by a Marine Corps aviation mishap board, a process that normally takes several months.
The loss is the fourth F-35 written off in US service since January 2025 in GlobalMilitary.net's event log for the type, after an Air Force F-35A at the Nevada Test and Training Range on March 31, 2026, a Navy F-35C near NAS Lemoore in July 2025, and an Air Force F-35A in Alaska in January 2025. All four pilots ejected safely.
GMN inventory data records 170 F-35B and F-35C in Marine Corps service against 164 still on order, within a US F-35 Lightning II force of 611 aircraft across the three services: 385 F-35A with the Air Force, 170 with the Marine Corps and 56 F-35C with the Navy, plus 1,707 more on order. The short-takeoff and vertical-landing F-35B is the variant that replaced the AV-8B Harrier II, retired in June 2026, and it equips both land-based squadrons such as those at Miramar and detachments embarked on amphibious assault ships. The United States heads GMN's ranking of the world's air forces by fleet strength.
The Marine Corps has not announced any change to flight operations at Miramar, and no fleet-wide stand-down has been ordered. The mishap board's findings, including the probable cause, are normally released in a redacted investigation report once the inquiry closes.
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