A bird strike triggered a 2022 accident in which a Marine fighter jet crashed onto the family property of the previous South Carolina guv, the Marine Corps has actually figured out.
An F/A-18D that had actually flown out of Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, for a regular flying objective crashed onto land owned by the family of previous Gov. Mark Sanford on Halfmoon Island, South Carolina on March 3, 2022.
The second Marine Aircraft Wing’s Marine Aircraft Group 31 figured out through an examination that the “primary cause of the mishap was a bird strike and subsequent engine fire and failure,” according to a Wednesday declaration by Marine spokesperson Maj. Melanie Salinas.
“The bird strike and subsequent fire resulted in a serious situation for the aircrew, and we’re grateful both pilots survived with relatively minor injuries,” Salinas said.
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The result of the examination was initially reported by The Island Packet, a regional paper in Beaufort County, South Carolina.
The crash triggered a fire on the Sanford property that spread out throughout 40 acres and burned a number of 100-year-old oak trees, the Island Packet reported.
Between 1995—2019, the Air Force sustained more than 100,000 bird strikes, resulting in 27 deaths, 13 losses of airplane and $817,546,884 in monetary expenses, Air Force Times reported in 2019.
A Navy examination just recently obtained by Navy Times figured out the August 2022 crash of a T-45C Goshawk trainer jet was triggered by a “large bird” being swallowed into the engine.
Irene Loewenson is a staff press reporter for Marine Corps Times. She signed up with Military Times as an editorial fellow in August 2022. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she was the editor-in-chief of the trainee paper.
