US Navy Jet Crashes In Inyo County

(CNN) -- A US Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet jet crashed Wednesday near Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California, according to US Naval Air Forces.

The status of the pilot is unknown and search and rescue efforts are currently underway.

"At approximately 10:00 a.m PST an F/A-18E crashed near @NAWS_CL. Search-and-rescue efforts are underway," Naval Air Forces tweeted Wednesday from its verified Twitter account.

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake is located approximately 125 miles north of Los Angeles.

A spokesperson for the Inyo County Sheriff's Office, Carma Roper, told CNN that they were helping to secure the area until the military arrived on scene.

Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake is located in the Western Mojave Desert region of California and is approximately 125 miles north of Los Angeles.

The F/A-18 strike fighter forms the backbone of the Navy's jet fleet and the Super Hornet variant became operational in 2001.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.