U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet returning stateside from ISIS air war crashed in the UK

An F/A-18C Hornet crashed in the UK killing the pilot.

On Oct. 21, a U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18C Hornet belonging to VMFA-232 crashed shortly after take off from RAF Lakenheath.

Unfortunately, the pilot died in the incident: according to some reports he didn’t manage to eject but steered the jet away from houses, saving lives.

The aircraft was part of a flight of four Marines Hornets returning stateside after being deployed to the Middle East (Jordan) to support Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The first 6 out of 18 VMFA-232 F/A-18C arrived at Lakenheath from Souda Bay, on Oct. 17. The Aviationist’s photographer Tony Lovelock was there and took the photographs you can find in this post.

All the aircraft had bomb markings painted below the cockpit: the CAG bird had 72 ones, whereas the 165230/WT-11 sported 55 bombs.

Image credit: Tony Lovelock

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.