Military F-16 fighter jet crashes and bursts into flames in Michigan during training exercise

CNN

By Aaron Cooper, Jillian Sykes, CNN

(CNN) — A US military F-16 fighter jet crashed in northern Michigan during a training exercise Thursday afternoon, with the pilot ejecting, officials reported.

The Texas Military Department said the F-16 belonged to the Texas Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Wing and was doing a routine training mission from a National Guard base in Alpena, Michigan, when it crashed in Grand Traverse County.

“The pilot successfully ejected from the aircraft,” the department said.

“We have a possible mayday by wingman. I believe (they) may have taken a bird,” a military pilot alerted air traffic controllers, according to audio captured by LiveATC.net.

The cause of the crash has not been determined and the military said it is investigating.

Video shared with CNN showed a fireball in a field next to homes and a large smoke plume in a rural community south of Traverse City, about 130 miles north of Grand Rapids.

“It appears that they may have lost an engine and ejected… but we do see a lot of black smoke, which we believe is the ejected F-16,” an air traffic controller relayed to other pilots.

No one else was injured, and the pilot is in stable condition at a local hospital, according to state police.

Homes and businesses within a one-mile radius were evacuated due to a “hazardous chemical spill related to the plane crash,” Michigan State Police said in a social media post. Most residents were allowed to return home by 10 p.m. Thursday.

Shellie Doornbos and her husband were driving home from running errands when they saw the fireball.

“We could hear explosions coming from the fire and asked a police officer what it was we were hearing as we were driving away, and he told us it was a fighter jet crash and the explosions were ammunition,” she told CNN.

If it was a bird strike, as the military pilot suggested to air traffic control, it would not be unusual.

Thousands of planes hit birds and other animals in the United States each year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration Wildlife Strike Database. Forty-one strikes were reported in 2025 in Traverse City, Michigan, alone in 2025.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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