An intense yet remarkable moment unfolded in the rugged wilderness of Washington state, captured in striking bodycam footage. The video shows a Marine Corps F-18 pilot emerging from a fiery crash, face bloodied but spirit unbroken.
“I’m a little frazzled,” admitted Marine Corps Maj. Jackson Simon, his voice calm yet tinged with adrenaline. This admission came as he spoke to a Yakima County Sheriff’s deputy on June 13, 2026. Remarkably, the major’s demeanor seemed unfazed by the catastrophic wreckage he had just survived.
The newly released footage reveals the sequences that followed Maj. Simon’s daring ejection from his F-18 Hornet. The powerful fighter jet careened into a mountainside near Rimrock Lake, setting the scene ablaze with leaping flames and a towering column of black smoke that marred the serene treeline.
Despite the ordeal, Simon appeared astonishingly composed. Blood smeared across his face, he calmly approached the deputy, with a phone in hand, emanating a sense of poise that belied the gravity of the situation.
A thoroughly bloodied Marine Maj. Jackson Simon was caught on camera after courageously ejecting from his fighter jet, approaching a Yakima County Sheriff’s deputy with an air of nonchalance despite the dramatic F-18 crash he survived just moments prior. (Yakima County Sheriff’s Office)
Asked by a responder what kind of aircraft had crashed, the pilot began to answer, “That’s an F-18,” before quickly correcting himself.
“Well, that was–,” he began, before the responder said, “An F-18?” and the pilot confirmed.
The pilot told deputies he had been conducting low-level training over the lake when something went wrong.
“We were doing some circles over the lake,” he told the officer. “I tucked in, and I’m not sure exactly. Honestly, I’m a little frazzled.”
Marine Maj. Simon Jackson holds a Yakima County Sheriff’s deputy’s cellphone after calling his superiors to flatly tell them “Pilot ejected; pilot safe” and casually, “Hey buddy, this is Maj. Simon, I just crashed.” (Yakima County Sheriff’s Office bodycam footage)
When told by a bystander that “you hit the trees bad, bud,” he responded: “I went through the trees.”
When the bystander noticed the pilot was “shaking,” he admitted: “I have some adrenaline going.”
The footage also captured the pilot calmly making calls in the aftermath. In one conversation, he matter-of-factly tells someone, “Hey, buddy, this is Maj. Simon, I just crashed.”
After finishing his calls, he turned to the officer to say: “Without exaggeration: That’s about as close as you come.”
Marine Maj. Jackson Simon and a bystander caught on the Yakima County Sheriff’s Office deputy’s bodycam footage. (Yakima County Sheriff’s Office)
Later footage showed his parachute on the mountainside and the officer helping him gather his gear and cut the parachute from the ropes tangled in the trees.
The responding deputy wrote in the incident report that he found Simon standing on a hillside, “taking off his flight harness” and stacking his gear in a pile. Simon then slid down the embankment to meet the deputy, who performed a “buddy check” for injuries.
Witnesses had watched the military aircraft circling near Rimrock Lake shortly before the crash. Several people called 911 after seeing the pilot eject and the jet plunge into the mountainside, where the impact ignited a fire in the wooded area.
The first report came at 12:18 p.m. local time, according to the incident report. Less than a minute later dispatch was logging “JET CRASH” and “PILOT PARACHUTED OUT.” Multiple callers reported the ejection and fire; one entry says a witness was “crying saying she saw the crash.”
The Marine Corps said the F-18 was assigned to Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing. It was conducting routine training about 55 miles southeast of Seattle when the “non-fatal aviation mishap” occurred at approximately noon Pacific time June 13. The pilot ejected and was recovered by the local sheriff’s department.
A military spokesperson valued the destroyed aircraft at close to $67 million. The cause of the crash remains under investigation.
The 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, headquartered at MCAS Miramar in San Diego, California, has said it is withholding additional details while the investigation continues and noted that military aviation mishap investigations can take several months to complete.