Pilot seriously injured after crashing fighter jet near Sunport

An Air Force pilot was injured after ejecting from a fighter jet that crashed into a hill on Tuesday afternoon near the Albuquerque International Sunport.

Kirtland Air Force Base officials said the crash happened off the airfield on the south side of the airport.

Eva Blaylock, KAFB spokeswoman, said the pilot — who is in the Air Force but not stationed at Kirtland — was the only person on board the F-35 fighter jet.

She said the pilot is in the hospital and expected to recover from his injuries.

Blaylock said the pilot was ferrying the jet from the Lockheed Martin facility at Naval Air Reserve Station, Fort Worth, and landed at Kirtland around 1 p.m. to refuel.

She said the pilot then took off, headed for Edwards Air Force Base in California.

The fighter jet crashed around 1:45 p.m., and Blaylock said the cause of the crash is under investigation.

“Additional information will be released as it becomes available,” she said.

Video of the crash site shared by local news stations showed large flames consuming a heap of twisted metal along a hillside. Another photo showed an opened parachute in the same area.

Lt. Jason Fejer, an Albuquerque Fire Rescue spokesman, said the pilot was able to eject from the cockpit before the crash but suffered “serious injuries.”

AFR received reports around 2 p.m. of a downed aircraft on the mesa along University, south of Rio Bravo.

Fejer said Bernalillo County firefighters arrived first and began to search for the pilot while putting out a fire at the crash site. He said the pilot was able “to get out” and was taken to the hospital. He said there were two other people assessed for injuries near the scene but neither was hurt.

Fejer said roads in the area would be shut down as Kirtland personnel investigate the crash.

It marks the second crash of a military plane in New Mexico in the past month. In April, an F-16 Fighting Falcon went down in a remote area near Holloman Air Force Base in the southern part of the state, leaving that pilot with minor injuries after he ejected from the aircraft.

Patrick White, who was driving in the area at the time, told The Associated Press that he saw an aircraft trailing low on the ground, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust. He said the aircraft briefly disappeared from his line of sight, and then he saw “an enormous plume of black smoke.”

When he drove past the crash, he said he saw a piece of it in the middle of the road.