On 15 May, a U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor fighter jet, assigned to the 43rd Fighter Squadron, crashed shortly after 9 a.m. on the Eglin Air Force Base reservation.
According to the base spokeswoman, the pilot, whose name has not been released, ejected from the aircraft and was taken to the base hospital.
The pilot was in stable condition, Eglin said in an update about two hours after the crash. There were no other individuals in the aircraft.
The plane went down 12 miles northeast of the main part of the sprawling base, in a remote part of the Eglin reservation, Cole said. The Eglin reservation covers hundreds of thousands of acres across Northwest Florida.
First responders were on the scene of the crash late Thursday morning, Cole said.
The F-22 Raptor was on a routine training mission at the time of the crash, Cole said, who added that the plane was not part of a flyover scheduled for Friday morning to honor first responders and hospital personnel in Bay and Gulf counties for their work on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19.
As americanmilitarynews.com reported, the crash took place after F-15 and F-16 fighter jets performed a flyover to honor healthcare workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, though the F-22 was not a part of the flyover team. It was part of the 33rd Fighter Wing’s training flight.