Hill Air Force Base officials Friday released the name of the F-16 pilot who ejected safely before his jet crashed Thursday afternoon.
Lt. Jay Baer was flown by helicopter to a base clinic at Hill where he was treated for minor injuries that included bruises, according to Capt. Rob Goza, chief of public affairs for the 388th Fighter Wing.
Baer was also checked out at Davis County Medical Center, but no other injuries were found. He was resting Friday.
The crash Thursday occurred at 2:11 p.m., but it took two hours before the medical helicopter reached Baer.
"He was probably the loneliest guy in the desert for a while," Goza said.
Baer maintained radio contact with Hill officials from where he landed on mud flats near Carrington Island, not far from where his $18.8 million jet fighter broke into small pieces upon impact.
It took "some time," Goza said, for the Air Force to relay Baer's location to the AirMed helicopter. It took more time for the helicopter to reach Baer, waiting 30 miles west of his base in a remote northern section of the Utah Test and Training Range.
Just before the crash, Baer and pilots of three other single-seat F-16s were on their way back to Hill after a close-air support training mission. Baer's jet was assigned to the 421st Fighter Squadron.
Among the wreckage still at the site were 20 mm rounds of ammunition, white phosphorous flares and a quantity of toxic gas called hydrazine, used to start the jet's emergency power system.
"We don't have any indication that any of that spilled," Goza said about the dangerous gas.
If someone were to come in contact with the gas, it could cause skin irritation or eye damage, Goza said. The gas, he added, dissipates quickly when exposed to air and any danger to the area outside the immediate crash zone would be "minimal" if there was a leak.
Disaster control workers and hazardous materials experts from Hill were at the site Friday, surveying the scene but not yet recovering pieces of the plane.
"There are a lot of things that are awaiting the safety board before they go forward," Goza said.
Media are not being allowed access to the crash site, pending an investigation into the cause. The threat of scavengers accessing the site appears unlikely, according to Goza.
"The area is secure," he repeated twice.
Thursday's crash was the first in Utah involving an F-16 since 2002, when two crashes involving three planes claimed the lives of two pilots in less than a month.
Hill officials are not allowing media access to Baer during the investigation.
E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com