The high-speed pursuit began late Wednesday evening when California Highway Patrol officers approached a Jeep parked on the side of the road. As the officer approached, the driver fled and began weaving through traffic.
The chase was briefly called off when the driver began driving on the wrong side of the road on California State Route 198 in Lemoore, but began again when the vehicle reached Fresno County.
The Jeep then drove through the front gate of the Lemoore Naval Air Station and along an airstrip. The chase ended when the Jeep crashed into a parked F/A-18E Super Hornet’s horizontal stabilizer. The jet is still being assessed for damage.
The driver died, after being taken to a hospital and the female passenger was pronounced dead at the scene. Their names have not yet been released to the public, but authorities confirmed that they were not affiliated with the military.
“Regardless of procedures we have in place, something went wrong, and we had a tragic accident,” Navy Captain Monty Ashliman, the installation’s commanding officer, said at a press conference.
“We had some… damage to an aircraft, and we had two tragic losses of life, so we got to figure out a way to prevent that from happening in the future,” Ashliman continued.
Authorities are now investigating how the vehicle was able to bypass Navy security, though they do not believe that it was intentionally targeted.
“There will be many investigations that will be ongoing to make sure that personnel and assets and taxpayers dollars are taken care of the best way we possibly can,” Ashliman said.
