A Hawker Hunter owned by civilian contractor ATAC crashed into the ocean off the Californian coast on Oct. 15. Regardless of native information initially reported state that the pilot was recovered with critical accidents, he’s secure.
The plane concerned, callsign ATAC 12, was working with one other Hunter, callsign ATAC 11, when the incident unfolded.
Up to date 06:30 UTC, Oct. 17, 2025
Via a supply with first hand data of the incident, The Aviationist is ready to reveal that the Hunter jet suffered from what is believed to have been an engine subject or failure. Initially making an attempt to divert to close by Monterey Regional Airport, it was quickly obvious that ATAC 12 wouldn’t have the ability to make it and the pilot elected to desert the plane. The 2 Hunters had been working as ‘crimson air’ for F/A-18 Hornets flying from Naval Air Station Lemoore within the W283 and W285 army coaching areas off the coast.
ATAC, or Airborne Tactical Benefit Firm, operates a fleet of over a dozen classic Hawker Hunter jets that are utilised usually 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 Power as a frontline interceptor within the Nineteen Fifties, as a “versatile opponent” and employs the kind in each air to air and air to floor aggressor roles throughout workout routines.
Because of recordings made by Twitter/X person Aeroscout, we’re in a position to piece collectively at the very least 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 by means of 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 Huge Sur this afternoon.
The screenshot exhibits “ATAC11” N326AX in a low orbit over the location of the downed “ATAC12” (not seen)
“RESCUE04”, a NAS Lemoore SAR MH-60 responded and transported pilot to Stanford.
Hear 👇 pic.twitter.com/dn85xDavJQ
— Aeroscout (@aeroscouting) October 15, 2025
The MH-60 was in a position to get better 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 reported that he was transported to Stanford Medical Heart: whereas his situation was unknown, the reviews stated he was understood to have suffered a critical spinal damage.
Nonetheless, we later learnt that the pilot is secure and has been launched from the hospital.
The incident occurred shortly after 11:00am Pacific Customary Time (PST), or 18:00 UTC, a number of miles from the Huge 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 world of the crash. The seas and airspace off California are extraordinarily busy focal factors for army coaching, workout routines, and trials, and it’s not unusual to see ATAC’s Hunters and different plane working on this space on a close to each 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 least 9 earlier incidents involving the kind in ATAC’s service are recorded by the Aviation Security Community, with at the very least 4 of those involving the entire lack of an airframe. In two of those situations the crashes had been tragically additionally deadly. The point out of a spinal damage within the native information report [which was later denied NdA] is harking back to the 2018 lack of a Hunter off the coast of Hawaii, the place the pilot attributed the spinal damage he had sustained to the plane’s older fashion ejection seat. As an early technology seat, counting on much less superior expertise, the ejection expertise is much extra taxing on the human physique in comparison with present technology seats with trendy expertise and supplies.
As ATAC 12 was not seen on plane monitoring platforms on the time of the crash, the precise identification of the plane concerned shouldn’t be presently recognized. ATAC operates single seat Hunter F58s, which had been previously Swiss Air Power airframes, in addition to a handful of dual seat variants. The Hunter can be operated within the UK by Hawker Hunter Aviation, who present related 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 might be up to date as and when new data is offered.
