Body cam footage shows Marine after ejecting from F-18: ‘Hey buddy, I just crashed’

When first responders rushed to the scene after a Marine Corps F/A-18 crashed in Washington State in June, they were greeted by the pilot. The Marine walked towards them, holding up a phone and calling 911, with blood smeared across his face. 

On Friday, the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office released body camera footage of the moment responders found the aviator on June 13. Shortly beforehand, around noon, the F/A-18 Hornet was flying near Rimrock Lake, near Mount Rainier, approximately 55 miles south of Seattle. The jet, assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, was on a “routine training flight,” according to the wing, when it suddenly veered towards the ground. Bystander footage showed the F/A-18 flying into the ground, spiraling a few times before exploding on impact. The pilot ejected shortly before impact and was recovered and taken to a hospital with minor injuries.

The new footage shows the Marine pilot, in his own words, “a little frazzled,” but conversing with the people looking for him. CBS News first reported on the body camera footage. 

Marine F-18 Pilot Bodycam Footage After Crash – 'I just crashed'

CBS News identified the pilot as Maj. Jackson Simon. The Marine Corps did not confirm his identity and told Task & Purpose that it could not comment beyond its initial June statement, citing the ongoing investigation. Body camera footage also shows him being checked on by responders, as well as using a cell phone to call his fellow Marines.

When first responders got there, the pilot was already out of his parachute, walking down a road toward them.

“Are you the only pilot?” they asked, and he said he was. They checked him for injuries, which appeared limited to cuts on his face. He also identified his plane as an F/A-18, before amending that to “Well, that was an F-18.”

As the medics and others questioned the pilot, he described what he was doing. “We were doing circles over the lake, doing some low-level training,” he says on the video. “And then I tucked in, and I’m not sure exactly, honestly, I’m a little bit frazzled.”

Footage shows the pilot walking around and calling colleagues, summing up the situation with a few words: “Hey buddy, I just crashed.”

The crash was one of several aviation mishaps inside the United States in the last four months. Last month, a F-35B from the same Marine Corps unit crashed in Southern California. Other incidents include a B-52 crash at Edwards Air Force Base that killed three civilians and five airmen, as well as an AH-64 Apache helicopter crash in Texas last week that killed two soldiers.