Former TOPGUN pilot analyzes Marine Corps pilot's eerie calm after emergency F-18 ejection
On the afternoon of June 13, 2026, a Marine Corps F/A‑18 Hornet went down in a wooded stretch near Rimrock Lake, about 30 miles southeast of Yakima, Washington. The pilot, Marine Maj. Jackson Simon, was forced to eject just before the jet slammed into the forest, exploded and sparked a small wildfire.
Simon walked out of the trees with a bloodied face and made his way down a rural road toward a Yakima County sheriff’s deputy. Body‑camera video recorded the moment: the aviator’s voice was steady, his posture calm. “I’m a little frazzled,” he told the deputy, a remark that captured the stark contrast between the violence of the crash and the pilot’s apparent composure.
The incident occurred while spectators on the lake watched low‑level maneuvers overhead. According to early reports, the Hornet clipped a set of power lines before careening into the treeline. The Marine Corps has not confirmed whether the power‑line strike caused the crash, and the exact cause remains under investigation by the service’s safety officials.
The episode has drawn attention to the physiological and psychological rigors of ejecting from a high‑performance aircraft. Former Navy pilot Matthew “Whiz” Buckley, a 15‑year F/A‑18 veteran and former TOPGUN instructor, offered insight into what Simon likely experienced in those split seconds.
“Pilots are trained to compartmentalize,” Buckley said. “If anything’s going wrong, we focus on the task. Everything else goes away.” He described the ejection itself as a brutal event. “When you pull that handle, you have two choices: die or maybe live. And I said ‘maybe live’ because it’s incredibly violent. The average ejection seat subjects the body to 10 to 20 G’s of force.”
Buckley noted that the sudden acceleration can compress the spine and, in some cases, reduce a pilot’s height by a few inches. “Some folks don’t go back to flying status,” he added. “Your spine compresses. Some people get shorter.”
Statistical research underscores the danger. A meta‑analysis of 1,710 military aircrew ejections conducted between 1971 and 2019 reported a pooled mortality rate of 10.5 percent and major injuries in 29.8 percent of cases. The data illustrate that while ejection seats dramatically improve survival odds, they carry a substantial risk of serious harm.
Beyond the G‑forces, Buckley highlighted the importance of body positioning during ejection. “If your legs aren’t flat on the seat, it could break both of your legs and now you bleed out and die,” he warned, referring to the phenomenon known as “seat slap.” Pilots are instructed to keep limbs flush against the seat to minimize the risk of traumatic injury from the hard rocket‑propelled carriage.
The video of the crash shows the Hornet traveling at a high rate of speed before impact, leaving little time for a controlled ejection. Buckley speculated that Simon may have been performing a low‑altitude demonstration for the onlookers below. “It looked like a beautiful day. People out on a lake. ‘Hey, there’s some people down there on the lake. Why don’t we go show them what their tax money is for? America.’ I hope it wasn’t something like that,” he said.
Buckley also addressed the regulatory environment. “We have minimum altitude restrictions,” he noted. “There are no 500‑foot trees, right? So I don’t know what they were doing. It doesn’t sound like from his initial statement that there was anything wrong with the airplane. That’s usually not a good sign.”
The Marine Corps’ third Marine Aircraft Wing, the West Coast‑based unit to which Simon’s aircraft was assigned, confirmed that the pilot will face a review board. The board will evaluate the circumstances of the crash and can recommend a range of outcomes, from retaining his flight status under heightened supervision—sometimes referred to as “double secret probation”—to revoking his wings altogether. “I don’t know what the board’s gonna do, but it’ll come out. It should, because this is a $60 to $65 million Hornet. We deserve to know what happened,” Buckley said.
As investigators continue to piece together the sequence of events, the crash serves as a reminder of the high stakes inherent in tactical aviation. The pilot’s calm demeanor in the immediate aftermath has been cited as a testament to the training that prepares aviators to manage extreme stress, even as the physical toll of ejection remains a serious concern for those who survive such emergencies.
