BOISE, IDAHO — Two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers from Electronic Attack Squadron 129 collided and crashed during an aerial demonstration at Mountain Home Air Force Base in western Idaho on Sunday, with all four crew members ejecting safely. The jets were assigned to the squadron based at Whidbey Island, Washington.

The four crew members were being evaluated by medical personnel and were in stable condition. The jets were performing an aerial demonstration when the crash happened, and the incident is under investigation, Cmdr. Amelia Umayam, a spokesperson for Naval Air Forces, U.S. Pacific Fleet, said in a statement.

No one at the military base was hurt. "Everyone is safe and I think that's the most important thing," said Kim Sykes, marketing director with Silver Wings of Idaho. The base was locked down following the incident, according to a social media post, and base officials said the remainder of the air show was canceled.

Videos posted online by spectators showed four parachutes opening in the sky as the aircraft plummeted to the ground near the base about 50 miles south of Boise. A video captured by Shane Ogden showed the two aircraft appearing to make contact and spin in tandem as the crew members ejected and their parachutes opened, with the planes then falling together and exploding into a fireball upon impact.

The National Weather Service reported good visibility and winds gusting up to 29 mph around the time of the crash. The EA-18G Growler is a variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jet with sophisticated electronic warfare systems.

Organizers said the air show includes flying demonstrations and parachute jumps and celebrates aviation history and modern military capabilities. The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration squadron headlined the event both days. This year's Gunfighter Skies event was the first air show at the base since 2018, when a hang glider died in a crash during a performance. In 2003, a Thunderbirds aircraft crashed at the base while attempting a maneuver; the pilot steered the plane away from the crowd and ejected less than a second before it hit the ground, and was not hurt.

The air show industry holds roughly 200 events each year in the U.S. The last fatal crash at a U.S. air show occurred in 2022 when two vintage military planes collided at an event in Dallas, killing six people. There were no air show deaths in 2025 or 2024, and a spectator has not been killed at an air show since 1952. The Iran war has led to the cancellation of about ten air shows this year at bases where military units are flying missions related to the conflict.

"Air show flying is demanding. It has very little tolerance. The people who do it are very good and it's a small margin for error," said John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems. Investigators may be able to quickly get an idea of what happened in Sunday's crash because the crews survived and can tell investigators what they saw and experienced before the collision.