New Delhi, Dec. 4 -- An F-16C fighter jet belonging to the US Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team crashed on Wednesday morning during a training sortie over the Mojave Desert in Southern California, with the pilot ejecting moments before impact. The incident, which produced a dramatic plume of smoke and a sonic boom heard for miles, has prompted a military inquiry into what went wrong.

The crash occurred at approximately 10:45 am over controlled military airspace near Trona, California - a remote desert region roughly 200 miles west of the Thunderbirds' home base at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.

According to the Air Force, the F-16C Fighting Falcon went down on a dry lake bed south of Trona Airport, though it was not attempting t...