Watch $134 Million Go Up In Smoke As Navy Jets Collide At Air Show

As if Pentagon losses in the Trump-Netanyahu war on Iran weren’t already sapping them enough already, American taxpayers were losers again on Sunday when two U.S. Navy EA18-G Growlers blew up in spectacular fashion after colliding at an air show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. Four crew members ejected and were medically evaluated and said to be in stable condition.

The aircraft were performing a maneuver for the audience at the Gunfighter Skies Air Show when they made contact and then appeared to be locked together. In an instant, the four crew members ejected. As their parachutes successfully deployed, the two jets — valued at a combined $134 million — fell to the ground together and exploded, generating a massive cloud of smoke, and necessitating a careful descent by the crew members who had to avoid landing in the flaming wreckage. Made by Boeing, the EA18-G Growler is an F/A-18 Super Hornet variant that serves as something of an “electronic bodyguard” for other aircraft, by jamming, deceiving or suppressing enemy radar and electronic systems. 

BREAKING: Two U.S. Navy jets collided mid-air and exploded during the Gunfighter Skies Air Show at Mountain Home Air Force Base. pic.twitter.com/R66ADWM2TY

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) May 17, 2026

Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety expert, said the unusual collision in which the two jets were seemingly stuck together may have bought the crew members a few more critical moments. “It’s really striking to see,” Guzzetti told Associated Press. “It looks like they struck each other in a very unique fashion to cause them to remain intact and kind of stick to each other and that very well could have saved them.” Some social media users pointed to a wind advisory that had been issued. 

While the Air Force will investigate the crash, Guzzetti’s first impression was that it was not a mechanical failure: “It appears to be a pilot issue to me...Rendezvousing with another airplane in formation flight is challenging, and it has to be done just right to prevent exactly this kind of thing.” The jets landed in an empty patch of land far from the audience. The crash started a brush fire that torched 25 acres, and forced the remainder of the show to be cancelled.  It was the first edition of the Gunfighter Skies Air Show since 2018, when a hang glider pilot was killed in a crash. 

The two jets are part of the Electronic Attack Squadron 129 at Whidbey Island, Washington. They become the third and fourth Growlers from Whidbey Island to be destroyed in just the past 19 months. In October 2024, both female crew members died when they crashed near Mount Rainer. There were no fatalities in a February 2025 crash in San Diego Bay, in which the two male pilots ejected before their jet met this end: 

New footage released shows an EA-18G Growler jet crashing into the San Diego Bay this morning.

The two pilots ejected before the jet crashed into the water.

The crash caused an 80 foot plume of water and mud, according to a witness.

According to the San Diego Union Tribune,… pic.twitter.com/jGJDYehTYZ

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 13, 2025

Another aviation expert, Safety Operating Systems CEO John Cox, told AP that the maneuvers used to dazzle air-show crowds leave little room for error. “Air show flying is demanding. It has very little tolerance,” Cox said. “The people who do it are very good and it’s a small margin for error. I’m glad everybody was able to get out.” It’s enough to make you wonder whether such demonstrations are a reasonable use of taxpayers’ assets — to say nothing of the risk to the crew members. 

A clearer view of the mid-air collision from a different angle. pic.twitter.com/wpxVQ8wJyp

— Arslan Akbar (@iarslanakbar) May 18, 2026

The Pentagon’s loss of the two 67-million-dollar jets comes amid a very costly US war on Iran waged in tandem with Israel. On April 10, The War Zone reported that US forces had seen at least 39 aircraft destroyed at that point, including 24 MQ-9 Reaper drones, four F-15E Strike Eagles, two MC-130J Commando II’s, an E-3G Sentry, two KC-135 Stratotankers, a CH-47F Chinook, two MH-6M Little Bird helicopters and an A-10C Warthog. 

Last week, the Pentagon owned up to $29 billion in costs of the war to date, though there are plenty of skeptics who think it’s likely far higher — along with some insiders. In late April, unnamed US officials who were familiar with the DOD’s internal numbers said it was closer to $50 billion. That’s just the Pentagon’s tab — it doesn’t begin to account for the cost being imposed on American families and businesses via rising outlays for fuel, food and seemingly everything else.