Two months after a Marine Corps fighter jet slammed into a mountainside above Rimrock Lake, the Yakima County Sheriff's Office released body camera footage Friday showing the moment deputies reached the pilot who had just ejected from it.
The two-month gap between the crash and the footage's release is ordinary for a law enforcement bodycam request rather than a sign of unusual delay.
No injuries were reported beyond the pilot's own.
None of that explains what happened over Rimrock Lake specifically, since the investigation into this crash is still open.
A pilot's in-the-moment account, recorded on a stranger's bodycam rather than in a formal debrief, is not evidence of mechanical failure, pilot error or anything else the Marine Corps' safety board will ultimately determine; it is a snapshot of shock and adrenaline, not analysis.
Yakima County released body camera footage Friday of a Marine pilot moments after ejecting from an F/A-18 that crashed near Rimrock Lake in June — as the Pentagon runs a task force on a wave of similar non-combat aviation mishaps.