The name of the US Navy pilot who died after his plane crashed in China Lake near Death Valley on a routine training flight has been published.
Lt. Richard Bullock was flying an F/A-18E Super Hornet when it crashed in Trona, California, around 2:30 p.m. on Friday, according to Navy officials.
Bullock fell near the Navy’s test range at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif., in a remote, unpopulated area, according to USNI News.
While recovery attempts were ongoing, Federal Firefighters and Naval Security Forces from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake were on the scene.
‘The Navy joins the family, friends, and shipmates of Lt. Bullock in mourning this devastating loss,’ the Navy said in a statement.
Naval Air Station Lemoore, California is home to the F/A-18E Super Hornet.
According to its website, Lemoore is home to Commander Strike Fighter Wing Pacific and Commander Joint Strike Fighter Wing, as well as 16 active Strike Fighter squadrons.
According to the news agency, the Navy uses the remote area in China Lake and adjoining Death Valley for pilot training.
According to USNI News, a Navy spokeswoman stated that no other aircraft were involved in the collision and that no civilians were injured.
There have been three other crashes during training operations in the last three years.
A F/A-18F Navy Super Hornet from Naval Air Station crashed in Death Valley in October 2021, injuring the pilot.
A pilot wrecked an F/A-18E at China Lake in 2020.
During a routine training trip in Death Valley National Park in 2019, a Navy Super Hornet crashed.
When flying debris collided with park visitors, the pilot was killed and seven others were injured.
Bullock, a Montana native, had been assigned to VFA-113’s ‘the Stingers’ since April 2021.
According to his biography, he commissioned into the Navy in 2016 after attending an officer candidate school in Newport, Rhode Island.
‘The event is currently under investigation,’ according to Navy sources.
The plane looks a lot like the one Tom Cruise pilots in Top Gun 2: Maverick, his newest blockbuster film.
Cruise is shown piloting the Super Hornet via cameras attached in the cockpit, while experienced Navy pilots handle the stick.
Cruise, like his co-stars, went through a comprehensive Aviation Survival Training Curriculum before joining the US Navy F-18.
They progressed to supersonic jets by flying in a series of slower planes for several months.
Cruise had requested permission to fly the plane, according to producer Jerry Bruckheimer, but the Navy denied him — presumably on the grounds that the $70 million plane was simply too valuable to be entrusted to someone who isn’t a fighter pilot.