Miami: A pilot was safe after a US Navy F-35C fighter jet crashed near a central California naval installation on Wednesday, officials said. Authorities received a report that a military jet had crashed and was engulfed in flames around 6:40 pm, the Fresno County Sheriff's Office said in a social media post.

Responding deputies, firefighters, California Highway Patrol officers and EMS personnel found the wreckage in a cotton field just north of Lemoore Naval Air Station.The pilot, who had ejected, was found with a parachute in a nearby field, the sheriff's office said. He was flown to a hospital for evaluation and was expected to be OK.

–Agencies