A Malaysian F/A-18D Hornet caught fire on Thursday night as it was taking off, the country’s air force said.
Malaysia’s air force, which owns eight of the US-made fighter jets, said in a statement that the aircraft had been involved in an “accident” at 9:05 p.m. local time.
The statement said the take-off incident happened at Kuantan Air Base, roughly 110 miles east of the capital of Kuala Lumpur.
Both the 34-year-old pilot and 28-year-old weapons system officer ejected and were later discharged from a military hospital, the air force said in a separate statement.
“Both officers are now in stable condition with no serious injuries,” Gen. Muhamad Norazlan Aris said.
It’s unclear what caused the mishap with the fighter jet, which entered service with Malaysia’s air force in 1997.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim wrote in a statement on Friday morning that he had instructed authorities to “conduct a thorough investigation to identify the cause of the incident.”
A viral video of the take-off incident appears to show the jet catching fire in a flash of light at the end of the runway.
Photos of the airfield posted by the Malaysian air force showed debris from the aircraft on and near a runway.
The air force statement said the plane had crashed during a routine training flight.
Malaysia encountered a separate take-off accident involving one of its Hornets during an aerospace exhibition in 2019, when the aircraft’s left engine caught fire. Local media reported at the time that a foreign object had entered the engine.
A string of mishaps
The F/A-18 is a family of twin-engine fighter jets developed primarily by McDonnell Douglas — now Boeing — and first built for the US Navy and Marine Corps. They’re designed to take off from both aircraft carriers and airfields and handle both air combat and ground attack missions.
The early Hornet models were later followed by the Super Hornet, a mainstay of US naval aviation even as the F-35 takes on more of a role in the fleet. The Hornets are also flown by American allies and partners.
The latest F/A-18 incident adds to a list of several recent mishaps involving the aircraft family. A day earlier, a US Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet crashed into the water off Virginia during a training flight. The pilot ejected safely, and the cause of the incident is under investigation.
In May, the US Navy lost another of its Super Hornets after it fell off the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. It was the second Super Hornet to roll off the same aircraft carrier, after a similar incident occurred in April while the Truman was taking evasive action against Houthi rebel fire in the Red Sea.
In December last year, another Super Hornet was mistakenly shot down by a US missile cruiser in a friendly-fire incident in the Red Sea. Each of the Super Hornets costs over $60 million.
The Thursday incident comes as Malaysia received US approval in June to purchase 33 secondhand F/A-18C and F/A-18D Hornets from Kuwait, which is phasing out the older fourth-generation fighter aircraft for a batch of Super Hornets and Eurofighter Typhoons.
Malaysia’s air force also operates 18 Russian Sukhoi Su-30MKM fighter jets.
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