According to AFP, a US military F-16 fighter jet crashed in Grand Traverse County, Michigan on September 17 (US time), the pilot managed to parachute and escape, Michigan state police said.
We may have a distress signal from the aircraft accompanying us. I believe they may have hit birds," a military pilot informed the air traffic controller, according to a recording that the press obtained.
A video on social media recorded the scene of a fireball erupting on a field near a residential area and a large column of smoke in the southern countryside of Traverse City.
It seems they lost their engines and deployed parachutes to escape, but we saw a lot of black smoke, which we believe the F-16 was left behind," an air traffic controller informed the other pilots.
The pilot was the only one on board and deployed his parachute before the plane crashed. No one else was injured, and the pilot is currently in stable condition at a local hospital, according to Michigan state police.
The plane is participating in training exercises at a National Guard base in Alpena, Michigan.
All residents within a 1.6 km radius have been evacuated due to "dangerous chemical spills related to the plane crash," Michigan police announced on social media.
It is not yet clear what caused the F-16 to crash, but some reports suggest that the cause was a collision with a bird.
According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)'s wildlife collision database, thousands of planes collide with birds and other animals across the United States every year. In Traverse City, Michigan alone, 41 collisions were recorded in 2025.
