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USMC F/A-18 Hornet pilot killed in nighttime training crash in Southern California

By Doug G. Ware
An F/A-18 Hornet illuminates the flight line during the 2015 MCAS Miramar Air Show over Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.. Friday, military officials said an F/A-18 pilot was killed late Thursday after crashing in a nighttime training flight near Twentynine Palms, Calif., about 150 miles away from the Miramar base. Photo by Kimberlyn Adams/U.S. Marine Corps
An F/A-18 Hornet illuminates the flight line during the 2015 MCAS Miramar Air Show over Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif.. Friday, military officials said an F/A-18 pilot was killed late Thursday after crashing in a nighttime training flight near Twentynine Palms, Calif., about 150 miles away from the Miramar base. Photo by Kimberlyn Adams/U.S. Marine Corps

SAN DIEGO, July 29 (UPI) -- A U.S. Marine Corps pilot was killed late Thursday when his F/A-18 Hornet fighter crashed in Southern California, military officials said.

The crash, involving a jet from U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, occurred during a nighttime training hop at around 10:30 p.m. local time Thursday. The aircraft was near Twentynine Palms, Calif., when it crashed, the military said in a statement Friday.

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The cause of the crash is under investigation and no one besides the pilot was involved, the USMC said. The pilot was not immediately identified, pending notification of relatives.

It wasn't initially clear whether the pilot crashed with the jet, or attempted to eject.

Air Station Miramar, located about 15 miles north of downtown San Diego and once the site of the U.S. Navy's "Top Gun" aviator training program, is now home to the Marine Corps' 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. Twentynine Palms is about 150 miles northeast of the Miramar base.

USMC Lt. Gen. Jon Davis told reporters on Friday that his thoughts and prayers are with the family of the pilot. He also said that due to budgetary reasons, Marine pilots aren't getting the number of flight hours they need to operate at peak efficiency, the Marine Times reported Friday.

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"I do not think we're unsafe, but we're not as proficient as we should be," he said.

The single-seat, twin-engine F/A-18 Hornet, manufactured by McDonnell Douglas, is flown by both Marine and Navy pilots.

The crash was the first of two deadly aviation accidents in California late Thursday. Two people were killed when a medical transport plane crashed near the state's border with Oregon less than three hours later.

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