Fighter jets on training missions drop into a narrow canyon in California’s Death Valley National Park, banking and dodging the jagged walls. On a nearby overlook, tourists and aviation enthusiasts crane their necks or aim cameras at the jets, some of them so close that onlookers can glimpse into cockpits.

This is a typical day at the so-called Star Wars Canyon, where the high-tech spectacle of American military jets resembles the famous sequence in “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope,” in which spaceships plunge and speed through a corridor on the Death Star.

But on Wednesday, a Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet crashed near the canyon, killing the pilot, military officials said. On Friday, the Navy identified the pilot as Lt. Charles Z. Walker, 33.

Seven people on the ground were injured, none of them seriously, said Patrick Taylor, a National Park Service spokesman.