An F-16 fighter jet from Texas crashed in rural northern Michigan on Thursday during a routine training exercise. The pilot ejected safely.
Sgt. Derek Gutierrez, a public affairs specialist with the 149th Fighter Wing of the Texas Air National Guard, said the pilot was being treated at a local hospital. Gutierrez declined to release details about the pilot’s identity or any injuries, pointing to military policy.
The jet, which belonged to the Texas unit, was flying training sorties at a National Guard base in Alpena, approximately 190 miles north of Detroit.
Authorities told some residents nearby to shelter in place after the wreck, which sent a loud crash reverberating throughout the countryside. Pictures of a dark smoke plume hanging over the fields circulated on social media.
Wendy Sobeck lives minutes from the site. She and her husband heard the crash.
“We thought there was a car accident outside our house,” she said. “We saw big billowing black smoke. We couldn’t tell what it was, so my husband got into his pickup truck and saw what happened. You could see the plane debris in the field. Explosions kept happening.”
The cause of the crash remains unconfirmed. Military investigators typically take the lead in such cases, and Gutierrez offered no further details on what failed in the air.
Alpena’s Combat Readiness Training Center has hosted Guard and active units for years. Fighter squadrons rotate through the ranges and the low-level routes that cut across the Upper Great Lakes. Thursday’s flight fit that pattern.
It is not the first time an F-16 has gone down in recent years.
In December 2025, an Air Force Thunderbird F-16C Fighting Falcon crashed during a training mission near China Lake in Southern California. The pilot ejected.
On July 31, 2024, an Ohio Air National Guard F-16 from the 180th Fighter Squadron declared an emergency over Michigan and dropped two external fuel tanks. One tank hit Lake Huron north of Baldwin Resort Road and exploded. The second came down in a Tawas parking lot that held a Tractor Supply, a Sav-A-Lot and other stores. The jet itself landed safely in Toledo, Ohio.
No one on the ground was hurt, with vehicles sustaining only minor damage. The Ohio Guard blamed a “fuel tank malfunction” on a “routine training mission” near the lake, roughly 220 miles north of its home station.
In July 2017, a Michigan Air National Guard A-10 flown by then-Capt. Brett DeVries suffered a 30-millimeter gun misfire over the Grayling Air Gunnery Range. The aircraft’s canopy blew off, and its landing gear failed. However, DeVries was able to successfully land the Warthog on Alpena’s runway. He later received the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The 149th Fighter Wing trains F-16 crews out of Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Its jets operate around the country for exercises.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
