A Hawker Hunter owned by civilian contractor ATAC crashed into the ocean off the Californian coast on Oct. 15. Native information studies state that the pilot was recovered with critical accidents.
The plane concerned, callsign ATAC 12, was working with one other Hunter, callsign ATAC 11, when the incident unfolded. No particulars are but obvious as to the reason for or circumstances relating to the crash.
ATAC, or Airborne Tactical Benefit Firm, operates a fleet of over a dozen classic Hawker Hunter jets that are utilised often as a part of their contracted provision to army and authorities clients, together with the U.S. army. The corporate describes the Hunter, which initially entered service with the Royal Air Drive as a frontline interceptor within the Fifties, as a “versatile opponent” and employs the kind in each air to air and air to floor aggressor roles throughout workouts.
Because of recordings made by Twitter/X consumer Aeroscout, we’re capable of piece collectively a minimum of some details about what occurred. After ATAC 12 went down, ATAC 11 circled the crash web site and made air site visitors management conscious of the incident by relaying messages via close by civilian plane. An MH-60S Seahawk search and rescue (SAR) helicopter was quickly scrambled from Naval Air Station Lemoore, which maintains a everlasting station SAR flight for such events.
An ATAC Hawker Hunter, “ATAC12”, went down off the coast of Large Sur this afternoon.
The screenshot exhibits “ATAC11” N326AX in a low orbit over the positioning of the downed “ATAC12” (not seen)
“RESCUE04”, a NAS Lemoore SAR MH-60 responded and transported pilot to Stanford.
Pay attention 👇 pic.twitter.com/dn85xDavJQ
— Aeroscout (@aeroscouting) October 15, 2025
The MH-60 was capable of recuperate ATAC 12’s pilot from the water, presumably having ejected from the plane. Quoting the U.S. Coast Guard, native information station KSBW Motion Information 8 studies that he was transported to Stanford Medical Heart and that his current situation is unknown, although he’s understood to have suffered a critical spinal harm.
The incident occurred shortly after 11:00am Pacific Customary Time (PST), or 18:00 UTC, a couple of miles from the Large Sur coast in central California. A 7700 ‘common emergency’ squawk was transmitted by ATAC 11 from round 11:25am PST because it continued to circle the realm of the crash. The seas and airspace off California are extraordinarily busy focal factors for army coaching, workouts, and trials, and it’s not unusual to see ATAC’s Hunters and different plane working on this space on a close to every day foundation.
ATAC Hawker Hunter out of NAS Level Mugu. #ADSB #A3AFE6 pic.twitter.com/MZqOKRLXgl
— Amelia Smith (@ameliairheart) March 8, 2021
This isn’t the primary incident for ATAC involving a Hawker Hunter. At the very least 9 earlier incidents involving the kind in ATAC’s service are recorded by the Aviation Security Community, with a minimum of 4 of those involving the overall lack of an airframe. In two of those cases the crashes have been tragically additionally deadly. The point out of a spinal harm on this newest instance is harking back to the 2018 lack of a Hunter off the coast of Hawaii, the place the pilot attributed the spinal harm he had sustained to the plane’s older type ejection seat. As an early technology seat, counting on much less superior know-how, the ejection expertise is way extra taxing on the human physique in comparison with present technology seats with fashionable know-how and supplies.
As ATAC 12 was not seen on plane monitoring platforms on the time of the crash, the precise id of the plane concerned just isn’t presently identified. ATAC operates single seat Hunter F58s, which have been previously Swiss Air Drive airframes, in addition to a handful of dual seat variants. The Hunter can be operated within the UK by Hawker Hunter Aviation, who present comparable contracted providers to the British Ministry of Defence.
2023-04-24 厚木基地Airborne Tactical Benefit CompanyATAC MK-58 Hawker HunterN321AX , N322AX pic.twitter.com/ZIjlnL5vrO
— はーむ (@MomoAtsugi) April 25, 2023
This text covers a breaking information story, and will probably be up to date as and when new data is offered.
