Navy Airshow Disaster in Idaho — What Went Wrong?

YouTube ^ | 05/18/2026 | Capt Steeeve

[TexasKamaAina]

Two U.S. Navy EA-18G Growlers collided midair during a demonstration at the Gunfighter Skies Air Show in Idaho. In this video, Captain Steeeve breaks down the formation flying involved, what may have happened during the maneuver, and why airshow flying leaves very little margin for error. We’ll analyze the footage, discuss the ejection sequence, and explain how all four crew members survived this terrifying incident.

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TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: airshow; planecrash

[TexasKamaAina]

Frame-by-frame analysis begins at 8:20.

[Zhang Fei]

Obviously the accident was a terrible thing, but the survival rates for these mishaps is very low. Tremendous response under pressure for the air crews involved.

[noiseman]

The way the two aircraft oddly pasted themselves together, they were very fortunate that the jets didn’t end up with one of the aircraft overlapping the canopy of the other or worse, canopy to canopy. The fact that all four were able to eject safely is incredible.

[DesertRhino]

Women drivers?

[Zhang Fei]

[Women drivers?]

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ROFL

[BobL]

“Women drivers?”

Possible, but almost certainly DEI was involved in some way. Hopefully Hegseth finishes purging that crap.

[Qatar-6]

Enough with this air show silliness. Blue Angels or Thunderbirds and that's it.

Two warfighting platforms gone doing something they shouldn't have been doing.

[The Louiswu]

Most folks would be happy with a simple fly by no need to engage in ridiculous and risky maneuvers which as we see go wrong from time to time resulting in expensive and often deadly mistakes.

[SharpenedEdge]

One of the two pilots reportedly was a woman, call sign “Wrecking Ball”. No kidding.

[DesertRhino]

Unreal.... lol

[T.B. Yoits]

One of the two pilots reportedly was a woman, call sign “Wrecking Ball”. No kidding.

We're currently in a "Coulter Window" between when the event occurred and when the authorities admit that the offender is not a white man.

Coulter's Rule is from Ann Coulter who pointed out that the longer we go without being told the race of a shooter, the less likely it is to be a white man.

Corollaries to Coulter's Rule apply to crimes other than shootings, and to politically inconvenient screwups caused by such things as Didn't Earn It (DEI) hiring.

[montag813]

Here is a breakdown of the key points made by Captain Steeeve regarding the Navy airshow disaster in Idaho, tracking the incident from the initial impact to the final rescue.

Key Points from the Breakdown
The Incident & Aircraft Involved: The crash occurred this past Sunday at the Gunfighter Skies Air Show at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho [00:26]. It involved two EA-18G Growlers—a specialized Navy electronic warfare variant of the F-18 Super Hornet [04:04]—belonging to the VAQ-129 “Replacement Air Group” (RAG) demonstration team [03:44]. Unlike the Blue Angels, their routines focus on simulated tactical maneuvers and high-speed rendezvous passes rather than tight formation flying [06:53].

The Collision and The “Pancake” Trap: During a rendezvous maneuver, the two aircraft collided and mysteriously locked together [08:25]. Debris—likely the vertical stabilizers—sheared off, causing the locked planes to lose control and plummet in a spiral [08:45]. The aircraft were stacked vertically directly on top of one another like a “pancake” [09:31]. This created a deadly trap: if the crew in the bottom aircraft had ejected immediately, they would have been launched straight into the belly of the plane above them [09:37].

The “Miracle” Ejection Timing: As the locked aircraft tumbled, they began to cartwheel, causing the nose of the top aircraft to drop and briefly separate from the bottom one [10:12]. At that exact split second, the bottom crew initiated their ejection, clearing the top plane by what Captain Steeeve describes as millimeters [11:58]. A second later, the crew in the top aircraft ejected safely behind them [13:17].

The Threat of the Fireball Heatwave: After all four crew members (two pilots and two backseaters) ejected, the planes struck the ground and exploded into a massive fireball [13:51]. This created a secondary threat: the rising thermal heatwave from the burning jet fuel. Historically, older nylon parachutes would melt in these heatwaves, causing pilots to plummet [15:17]. Fortunately, modern “ripstop” nylon canopies and Kevlar/Spectra suspension lines are highly heat-resistant, keeping the chutes fully intact [15:43].

Danger on the Ground: Favorable wind pushed the descending airmen away from the immediate impact zone [19:07]. However, because the winds were blowing toward the crash site, the crew had to instantly uncouple from their parachutes upon landing to prevent being dragged back into the flames [17:44]. Furthermore, the crash ignited a fast-moving prairie fire in the dry Idaho brush, forcing the crew to flee on foot immediately after landing [18:20].

Summary
Captain Steeeve frames this disaster as a “miracle of miracles” because all four crew members survived with only minor injuries despite an incredibly tight margin of safety [12:04]. The survival of the airmen relied on a flawless sequence of split-second events: the natural tumbling of the aircraft providing a momentary window for the bottom crew to eject without hitting the top plane, the automated delayed sequencing of the ejection seats, the heat-resistant engineering of modern military parachutes, and the swift survival instincts of the crew to detach their chutes and outrun a rapidly spreading prairie fire on the ground [18:42].