Top Gun Pilot Killed During Training

The military pilot involved in a fighter jet crash in western Nevada during a training exercise was confirmed dead by a Navy spokesperson during the late evening on March 2. The crash occurred at about noon ET on the day before and involved a Top Gun pilot.

A mixture of poor weather conditions and the remoteness of the crash site slowed the reaction time of the rescue crews from reaching the fallen jet for several hours. The site of the crash was located about 70 miles east of the Naval Air Station Fallon, one of the Navy’s range training complexes.

Naval Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Reagan Lauritzen announced that officials determined the pilot’s status on Sunday, yet the pilot’s name has not been released since notification of next of kin is still pending. According to Lauritzen, the fighter jet involved in the crash was on loan to the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center from the Marines and was an F/A-18C model. The fighter jet was on loan specifically for elite Top Gun pilot training.