WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Marine Corps says the pilot of an F-35B stealth fighter is expected to live after ejecting from the jet before it crashed in California.
The jet went down Friday near the Miramar air base in San Diego. A Marines statement called it a “Class A mishap.” A single F-35B fighter jet costs about $109 million.
“The pilot ejected, was transported to a local medical facility in stable condition for evaluation and treatment of non-life-threatening injuries,” the Marine Corps said in an updated statement.
Aerial video from a news helicopter showed a plume of black smoke rising from the wreckage in a dirt field, with multiple military and firefighting vehicles and people standing nearby. What appeared to be white flame retardant covered the ground, and at least one person was spraying the wreckage with a fire hose.
Candace Hadley, a spokesperson for San Diego Fire, said firefighters were on scene to respond to a vegetation fire that sparked near the crash site. She referred additional questions to Miramar.
The F-35B is one of several versions of the advanced stealth fighter jet that is flown by the Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. The “B” version has an engine that is designed for short takeoffs and is capable of vertical landings.
Marine Corps Air Station Miramar used to host the Navy fighter pilot training school depicted in the original “Top Gun” movie, and was known as “Fightertown USA” in its heyday. The school was relocated to Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada in 1996 after the base was transferred to the Marine Corps.
This image made from a video provided by KGTV shows the scene of an F-35 jet crash Friday, July 31, 2026, near the Miramar Air Base in San Diego. (KGTV via AP)
This image made from a video provided by KGTV shows the scene of an F-35 jet crash Friday, July 31, 2026, near the Miramar Air Base in San Diego. (KGTV via AP)
DUXBURY, Mass. (AP) — Jurors walked through the Massachusetts home where Lindsay Clancy strangled her three children, a rare visit Friday that let them see firsthand the place where an outwardly ordinary family life unraveled into tragedy.
After being driven past two businesses relevant to the narrative of the January 2023 killings, jurors were escorted in groups of six to view the inside of the house, including the basement where the children died. During the roughly 40-minute visit, the jury also saw the yard where Clancy was found after jumping from a second-story window.
Journalists were kept away by a police barricade, but court officers could be seen through the trees escorting jurors to and from the bus along the site of the Clancy family’s former driveway. The home now has a new owner.
Clancy herself did not attend the visit to the home, which she hasn't seen since the day of the killings. Her lawyers argue she was in the grip of postpartum psychosis, a rare mental illness linked to the stress, sleep deprivation and hormonal changes that follow childbirth.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988.
Jurors in U.S. criminal cases often are expressly told not to visit the scene of the events in question. There are a number of rationales for not doing so — among other things, the site may have changed in the interim between an alleged crime and a trial.
But courts sometimes allow juries to make a supervised excursion as a group, for reasons that can include assessing distances or features that aren’t thought to come across fully in photos.
Such excursions have happened in a number of high-profile cases, including the 2023 murder trial of South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh, the 2022 sentencing trial of Parkland, Florida, school shooter Nikolas Cruz, the 2015 Massachusetts murder trial of former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez and the 1995 murder trial of O.J. Simpson.
Jurors in Clancy's trial retraced the route her then-husband, Patrick Clancy, took when she asked him to pick up takeout food and medicine for daughter Cora on the night of the killings. He returned to find the children dead and his then-wife badly injured and bleeding in the yard.
The panel was driven past the restaurant — about 5.5 miles (9 kilometers) from the family’s former home in Duxbury, a town south of Boston — and the pharmacy, about a mile (1.6 km) from the house.
Prosecutors say the errands were a ruse to get her husband out of the house. They say Lindsay Clancy, a former labor and delivery nurse, acted intentionally and is criminally responsible for the deaths of children Cora, 5; Dawson, 3; and Callan, 8 months.
Her lawyers don't dispute that she killed the children, but they say she had bipolar disorder and her condition worsened while she was on antidepressants prescribed after the birth of her third child. She believed a voice was telling her to “kill the children so you can kill yourself,” according to her lawyers.
Lindsay Clancy remains paralyzed from the waist down after using multiple methods to try to end her life that night.
If convicted of murder, she faces life in prison without parole. If found not guilty due to a lack of criminal responsibility, she would be committed to a state mental health facility.
Defendant Lindsay Clancy awaits the start of proceedings during her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool) CORRECTION: Source is The Boston Herald, not The Boston Globe.
Kevin Reddington, defense attorney gestures as he cross-examines a witness during the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
Duxbury fire department Capt. PJ Hussey points to photograph as he testifies during the murder trial for Lindsay Clancy at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
Defendant Lindsay Clancy listens during her murder trial at Plymouth Superior Court in Plymouth, Mass., on Thursday, July 30, 2026. (CJ Gunther/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
A police barricade stands outside the former home of Lindsay Clancy in Duxbury, Mass., on Friday, July 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)
