Story highlights
Jet crashes about 70 miles east of Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada
Navy says it's working to confirm "status of the aircraft crew member"
Plane was assigned to Fallon's Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center
A supersonic combat jet crashed Saturday afternoon on a training complex in rural Nevada, the Navy said.
The F/A-18C Hornet went down about 70 miles east of Naval Air Station Fallon in western Nevada, an hour’s drive east of Reno.
The aircraft was conducting a training flight. Navy personnel were en route to the scene Saturday night and had not yet “confirmed the status of the aircraft crew member,” according to a news release.
The plane was assigned to the air station’s Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center.
Naval Air Station Fallon is a popular training site because of its weather, which provides “more than 300 clear flying days per year” and its facilities, which include four bombing ranges, an electronic warfare range and a 14,000-foot runway, the longest in the Navy, the base’s website says.
In January: Divers find body of missing pilot in Navy helicopter crash
CNN’s Barbara Starr contributed to this report.