The military has released cockpit video showing a bird strike on a Navy jet right before it crashed into a Fort Worth-area neighborhood one year ago.
The video — in the player at the top of this article — shows the bird striking the plane and the pilot saying that they were trying to make it to a runway.
The pilot then says, “We’re not going to make it” followed by, “Stand by to eject.”
A Navy instructor and a student ejected and the jet crashed into a Lake Worth neighborhood, damaging three homes.
One pilot’s parachute was caught in some power lines, and the other pilot was found in a nearby wooded area, according to authorities. They were both injured, but survived.
“This incident is a neighborhood miracle,” Lake Worth police said in a statement last September. “...The fact that there were no casualties is indeed a miracle.”
Naval Air Training officials said the pilots were conducting a routine training flight out of Corpus Christi International Airport prior to the crash.
The bird strike caused them to lose the jet’s single engine and aviation experts said it appears the pilots had no way to prevent the crash.
This video below is from September of 2021:
The two occupants ejected from the aircraft. The instructor pilot is in stable condition; the student naval aviator’s condition is unknown but he is alive and receiving treatment. Both were transported to medical facilities for evaluation.
— Chief of Naval Air Training (@CNATRA) September 19, 2021