Two military pilots were seriously injured when they ejected from their plane before it crashed into the back yard of a home in North Texas during a training exercise Sunday morning.
(Fort Worth Star-Telegram) - A military training jet crashed into a Lake Worth neighborhood on Sunday, September 19, 2021.
Three homes were damaged.
A statement on the Chief of Naval Air Training Facebook page said it was a Navy T-45C Goshawk jet trainer aircraft assigned to Training Air Wing 2 at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas, that crashed in Lake Worth, about two miles north of Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth.
“The two occupants ejected from the aircraft,” the Navy’s statement said. “The instructor pilot is in stable condition; the student naval aviator was reported in serious condition – his injuries were not life threatening. Both were transported to medical facilities for evaluation.”
“The pilots were conducting a routine training flight that originated from Corpus Christi International Airport,” the statement said. “The cause of the crash is unknown.”
The Naval Safety Center will be in charge of the investigation. Officials from the Navy, Air Force and Lockheed Martin responded to the scene along with first responders from Lake Worth and Fort Worth, authorities said.
The Red Cross is assisting residents who had to be evacuated from their homes, Lake Worth Fire Chief Ryan Arthur said.
“This incident could have been much worse knowing this plane went down in a residential area here in Lake Worth,” Arthur said.
Lake Worth first responders have had regular training exercises to practice for the possibility of a plane crash, which is one of their highest priorities for emergency drills because of the area’s “unique position” near the military base, Arthur said. He said this is first such crash during his time with the department.
The fire was contained to the plane, but the three homes were damaged by debris from the crash, officials said.
The accident also caused electrical outages within a two- to three-block radius, and the power may be out for a few days while the wreckage is removed from the area, authorities said.
Lt. Michelle Tucker, public affairs officer for the Chief of Naval Air Training in Corpus Christi, described the military’s process for evaluating damage and reimbursing homeowners.
“We have personnel go out to the scene, and they reach out to those individual homeowners directly, and they take care of those things for them, so it should be pretty seamless,” Tucker said. “That process is already in place, between our legal department and then environmental cleanup as well.
“They’re very, very thorough. They will return the property to as close as pre-crash conditions as possible, maybe even better, hopefully. That’s something that we definitely take very seriously. It’s really hard on homeowners.”
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