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A video captured the moment two Royal Air Force pilots ejected from a training aircraft before a fiery crash in Wales.

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The Royal Air Force (RAF) said the incident involving a Hawk T2 aircraft happened near Anglesey on Wednesday after the pilots departed the RAF Valley base in the northwestern part of the country.

«Both pilots are doing well, they are in extremely good spirits and expected to make a full recovery,» the RAF said in a statement. «A formal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident is now underway and as a precautionary measure, the RAF has temporarily paused Hawk T1 and Hawk T2 flying operations.»

BLOODIED, EJECTED MARINE CORPS PILOT SEEN CALM AND COLLECTED AFTER WASHINGTON CRASH DESTROYS AIRCRAFT

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A Royal Air Force Hawk T2 training aircraft crashed in Wales on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2026. (Danni Jones via Storyful)

Footage taken by local resident Danni Jones and obtained by Storyful shows the pilots parachuting through the air after a fireball erupted in the Welsh countryside.

The RAF said on its website that the Hawk T2 «is a high-performance, 2-seat training jet equipped with advanced avionics and synthetic radar to simulate front-line combat aircraft like the Typhoon.»

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The Royal Air Force BAE Systems Hawk T2 is seen at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England, on July 20, 2024. (NurPhoto via Getty Images)

«Used primarily by the RAF for advanced jet training, it prepares pilots for complex tactical environments,» it added.

The cause of Wednesday’s crash was not immediately clear.

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A Royal Air Force British Aerospace Hawk T2 flies along the Machynlleth Loop, a set of valleys in north Wales where pilots train in low-level flying, on March 27, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)

«RAF Valley on Anglesey is home to No 4 Flying Training School, responsible for training the UK’s next generation of world-class fighter pilots,» according to the RAF. «Aircrew are also trained at RAF Valley for mountain and maritime operations throughout the world.»

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

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united kingdom, air and space, military, air force, world

As President Donald Trump’s summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping comes to its end, some Republicans aren’t happy with the red carpet treatment the face of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) received.

«Quite frankly, had the White House asked me for advice, I would have suggested the president not invite Xi Jinping to Washington for such a lavish welcome here in the United States of America, based on all of the troubling issues we have with President Xi and the Chinese Communist Party,» Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said.

Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been one of the more vocal Republicans about his disdain for the meeting, which kicked off Wednesday afternoon when Trump met Xi at Joint Base Andrews — the first time a president has met with a foreign dignitary there since 2015.

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The White House argued in a statement to Digital that Trump was returning the sentiment to Jinping after his visit to Beijing earlier this year. 

«President Xi hosted President Trump in China for a historic summit this summer, and President Trump is reciprocating his hospitality by welcoming the Chinese delegation for a reciprocal visit this week,» White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. «The President will forge relationships with anyone in order to advance our national interests and make good deals for the American people.» 

It comes as Republicans are running to hold onto power in the Senate. They departed their midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month with a rallying cry: «Common sense versus communism,» as progressive candidates surge across the country.

The convention was designed to remind voters that while his name is not on the ballot, Trump’s agenda is. But his meeting with Xi, optically, runs afoul of that.

«I mean, the president campaigned on an anti-China policy,» Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. «You go look at those MAGA rallies and look at everybody cheering when he said he’s gonna take it to China.»

«Any time we roll out the red carpet for a despot from Russia, or a despot from China, I feel the same way,» he continued. «It’s kind of not good.»

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Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he was not «enthusiastic» about the summit, and said that China, Russia, Iran and North Korea were an «axis opposed» to the U.S.

«I hope the president’s clear-eyed about who he’s dealing with,» Cornyn told Digital. «I mean, he tends to call some of these dictators friends, and they’re no friend. I can guarantee.»

Some Republicans are willing to accept that a meeting between Trump and Xi is a necessary step in building a relationship between the two superpowers, even with the lavish nature of the summit.

«I think there’s value in being able to talk with your adversaries,» Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Digital. «And I think, in this case, you know, our two countries, the biggest economies in the world, have a symbiotic relationship.»

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., was invited to attend the dinner after spending years working in China before running for office.

Daines told Digital that he understood his colleagues’ apprehension, but that the U.S. and China, and particularly Trump and Xi’s relationship, had to work.

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«This relationship is too big to fail, and it’s only appropriate that President Trump and his team extends respect to Xi Jinping, and it’s really reciprocal to what they did for President Trump back in May when they showed him great respect when he showed up in Beijing,» Daines said.

Still, that doesn’t mean Republicans have to like it.

«It is one of his strengths, his ability to sort of win individuals over with hospitality,» Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., told Digital. «He’s in the business. So I don’t, again, I’m not gonna second guess it. You know, I hate seeing it at a personal level, but I trust his instincts on it.»

Lawmakers hoped that the two-and-a-half-day summit would yield deals on the artificial intelligence (AI) race, trade deals that would end the trade war between the U.S. and China and for Xi to use his influence to get oil and natural gas flowing through the Strait of Hormuz again.

Trump kept tight-lipped about the nature of their bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Thursday, but so far, Xi has promised two new pandas while the president is mulling allowing Chinese electric vehicles to be built in the U.S.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., took no issue with the meeting, but hoped that Trump would see through any smokescreen Xi deployed.

«I just suggested, and I don’t think he will — the president’s a pretty good judge of character — not to believe President Xi’s bulls—, because he’s lying. Particularly about helping Iran, and Xi could get the Strait open immediately if he wanted,» Kennedy told Digital.

politics, donald trump, xi jinping, republicans elections, senate, china

The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to revive a major immigration fight over whether criminal aliens can be held without bond throughout removal proceedings or are entitled to a hearing when their detention drags on.

Solicitor General John Sauer asked the Supreme Court on Monday to take up Genalo v. D.C., reviving a constitutional fight the justices had been set to hear this term in Genalo v. Black before New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s pardon rendered that case moot.

At the center of the dispute is D.C., a Dominican national who is facing removal after a criminal history that includes drug trafficking and domestic violence charges. He had previously been removed from the United States on six occasions, according to ICE.

Federal law requires certain criminal aliens to remain in custody while their deportation cases play out. But the Second Circuit has ruled that if they are detained for too long, they are entitled to a bond hearing at which the government must make the case for keeping them in custody.

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Other appeals courts have taken different approaches, leaving the Supreme Court with a nationwide split over what constitutional protections apply.

«So the rights of these criminal aliens who were being detained, whether or not they’re entitled to a bond hearing as of right now depends on which jurisdiction they happen to fall in,» Michael Morley, a Florida State University law professor, told Digital. «And so the government is asking the Supreme Court to set one uniform interpretation for the entire country.»

The Trump administration’s petition is procedurally unusual because Genalo v. D.C. is still pending before the Second Circuit. Sauer is asking the Supreme Court to intervene before the appeals court issues its decision.

«Rather than making the court go through those motions, you just hear this case now, hear this case directly, even before the Second Circuit has had the opportunity to rule,» Morley told Digital.

The legal dispute could also determine who carries the burden when a bond hearing is required.

Under the Second Circuit’s approach, the government must show that a detainee poses a flight risk or danger to the community. The administration argued that if the Constitution requires such hearings, the burden should instead fall on the detainee seeking release.

Lawyers supporting the administration argue that some detainees could delay their removal cases, then use the length of their detention to seek release on bond.

«The biggest issue that happens here is gamemanship,» Chad Mizelle, chair of litigation at the America First Policy Institute and a former acting associate attorney general, told Digital.

«A lot of times these aliens will file multiple applications for asylum, withholding removal. They’ll get new attorneys, switch out attorneys, ask for continuances, ask for delays,» Mizelle said. «So all of a sudden they’ve been in detention now, six, seven, eight months, completely of their own making.»

FEDERAL APPEALS COURT DEALS BLOW TO TRUMP DEPORTATION AGENDA

Mizelle argued that if prolonged detention eventually gives a detainee the right to seek bond, it could create an incentive to stretch proceedings long enough to reach that point.

«They would switch out attorneys. They would make frivolous filings regarding asylum, regarding withholding of removal. They would ask for delays and continuances upon delays and continuances,» Mizelle said. «They’ll do everything they can to try to stretch this out, six months, seven months, eight months, file a habeas petition, say that they’re entitled to a bond hearing, and then if they are released, abscond.»

Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, similarly described the additional litigation as «a foot dragging, sand in the gears exercise.»

«This is attempting to stall, attempting to run out the clock or just, you know, the question is whether there even is a clock,» Severino told Digital.

She pointed to cases such as Demore v. Kim, in which detainees themselves sought additional time during proceedings before later challenging the length of their detention.

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«So, it’s often a situation where people are playing both sides of it,» Severino said. «But they’re asking for more time on different things, but then at the same time complaining that the whole process is taking too long.»

However, Severino cautioned that she could not speak to the motivations of every detainee.

The Supreme Court has previously upheld mandatory detention during removal proceedings, but Morley said the high court has left open the constitutional question now at the center of the administration’s petition.

«This is a question that the [Supreme Court] itself went out of its way, you can say, to leave open for adjudication in a future case,» Morley said.

The administration is now asking the justices not to wait for another one.

«You wanted to resolve this case. Here’s another case that presents the same exact question that lets you resolve the circuit split this term,» Morley said. «So basically, substitute this case for the moot case.»

Digital reached out to the Justice Department for comment.

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