An F-16 crash forced a one-mile evacuation and sent 30 people for testing

A Texas Air National Guard F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 149th Fighter Wing crashed during a training mission near Traverse City, Michigan, on September 17, 2026, and the pilot ejected safely. The crash released hydrazine, a toxic emergency fuel carried on the jet, and triggered a one-mile evacuation of homes and businesses around the site. Thirty people were evaluated at a local hospital for possible exposure, and six of them were kept overnight for further observation.

The aircraft was flying a routine training sortie out of the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center when it went down in Blair Township, in Grand Traverse County, shortly before 2 p.m. local time. The Texas Military Department said in a statement that the jet “experienced an incident” during the flight, and that the pilot ejected and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

A suspected bird strike over Blair Township

Air traffic control audio captured by a scanner feed and reported by ABC News recorded the pilot warning that his wingman may have hit a bird moments before the crash: “We have a possible mayday. My wingman, I believe, may have taken a bird,” the pilot said, adding that the aircraft would likely go down in the town he was flying over. Grand Traverse County Sheriff Michael Shea told reporters at a briefing that the pilot was “conscious and speaking with law enforcement” after being transported to a hospital, and that no other injuries were reported on the ground. Every Texas Air National Guard aircraft in Michigan for the same training exercise was grounded for at least 24 hours following the crash, according to a U.S. official cited in that report.

Hydrazine, the fuel behind the one-mile evacuation

The chemical that turned a survivable crash into a public health response was hydrazine, a highly toxic fuel used in the F-16’s Emergency Power Unit rather than its main engine. The jet released a little under seven gallons of it on impact. Michigan State Police ordered an evacuation of everyone within a mile of the crash site around 4:30 p.m., a radius that included part of County Road 633, and directed anyone still nearby to shelter in place before the order widened to a full evacuation, according to CBS News Detroit. Blair Township Supervisor Nicole Blonshine said she did not believe anyone on the ground had been hurt or that any homes had been damaged by the crash itself. A shelter was set up at Kensington Church in Traverse City for displaced residents, and the evacuation order was lifted by about 9:45 p.m., though officials said some residents of the nearby Glacier Pond subdivision would not be able to return home right away.

The response unfolded in stages rather than all at once. Emergency management first issued a shelter-in-place order covering County Road 633 between Jefferson Place and Blair Townhall Road, telling residents to stay indoors and close their windows and vents. That order hardened into the full one-mile evacuation, centered on the intersection of County Road 633 and Jefferson Place, at about 5 p.m. Hydrazine’s short-term effects include coughing, wheezing and trouble breathing, and its long-term effects can include organ damage, according to a toxicological profile cited by the Air Force Times, which is why Munson urged anyone who was in the affected radius and later developed those symptoms to seek care even after the evacuation order lifted.

Dr. Shaun Ramsey and Munson’s mass-casualty call

Munson Medical Center in Traverse City set up a decontamination line in its ambulance bay to process first responders and residents who may have been exposed, ultimately treating more than 30 people within a few hours and declaring a mass casualty incident because of the volume. “I’ve been an emergency physician and EMS physician now for ten years, and this is the first time something like this is happening in my career,” said Dr. Shaun Ramsey, an emergency physician at Munson and EMS medical director of the Northwest Regional Medical Control Authority, describing the decontamination process to 9&10 News. Anyone who may have been exposed had to remove their clothing before an “intense washing… to get that gas off of them,” Ramsey said. Six patients were kept overnight for additional observation; five were released the following day, with one still being treated as of Friday afternoon.

Hydrazine exposure of this scale is not something covered in standard medical training, so Munson consulted military physicians and toxicologists at Detroit’s poison control center to work out a treatment protocol on the fly. Ramsey credited the response to cooperation across the hospital and local, county, state and military agencies: “I think we came together in a phenomenal way as a community, and I’m proud to be a part of it,” he said.

The 149th Fighter Wing’s investigation, still open

The Air Force is leading a review of the crash in partnership with the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Texas Air National Guard has said it will not release further detail until investigators have a fuller picture of what happened. The wing has not said whether the pilot sustained any lasting injuries beyond the ejection itself, and the suspected bird strike heard on the air traffic control recording has not been confirmed as the cause. Until the inquiry concludes, the only official account of what brought the jet down remains the pilot’s own radio call in the seconds before it crashed.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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