The cause of the incident near Death Valley was under investigation

A US military fighter jet crashed on Wednesday in the California desert near a Navy air station, military officials said, leaving the fate of the pilot unknown.

The F/A-18E Super Hornet went down at about 10 am PDT (1 pm EDT), Lt. Cmdr. Lydia Bock, public affairs officer for the Joint Strike Fighter Wing, said in a written statement.

Bock said search and rescue crews were on the scene of the crash, east of Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California.

The cause of the incident near Death Valley was under investigation, she said.