An aging F-16 fighter jet fell out of the sky into a Michigan residential neighborhood Thursday — the pilot ejected safely, but a one-mile evacuation order and a hazardous chemical spill are what ordinary Americans got from the military-industrial complex this week.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon, a design that first entered U.S. service in the late 1970s, crashed in Blair Township near Traverse City during what the Texas Air National Guard called a "routine training mission." No civilians were injured and no homes were hit — this time. But a jet loaded with munitions nearly landed on someone's house, and the only reason it didn't is luck.

Air traffic control audio obtained by NBC News captures the wingman's frantic call: "We have a possible mayday by wingman, I believe may have taken a bird." The controller tried to guide the stricken jet to a nearby airport. The wingman's response: "Alert emergency services!…He's gonna have to get out, and it's gonna be in the town that I'm overhead now." The pilot ejected and parachuted to the ground conscious and alert, Blair Township Supervisor Nicole Blonshine confirmed to The New York Post.

Witnesses described the aftermath in plain terms. "I hear a big boom, and then I see a colorful parachute and this guy floating down from the sky," Nicole Conrad told NBC News. Wendy Sobeck of Blair Township said her husband drove to the scene before first responders arrived and captured video of billowing black smoke. A police officer at the scene can be heard on that video warning onlookers away: "Guys, I need you out of here. That's full of munitions. It's going to blow up in just a minute," the Detroit News reported.

Grand Traverse County Emergency Management ordered all residents and businesses within one mile of the crash site to evacuate due to a hazardous chemical spill related to the crash. The order covered County Road 633 from Jefferson Place to Blair Townhall Road. A shelter was set up at Kensington Church with American Red Cross assistance. The evacuation was lifted by 9:44 p.m., according to Michigan State Police.

The jet belonged to the 149th Fighter Wing — the "Lone Star Gunfighters" — based at Joint Base San Antonio in Lackland, Texas. The unit had posted on Facebook the day before that its student and instructor pilots were heading to Michigan for Operation Northern Cactus at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center. The jets were also scheduled for a flyover at a high school football game Friday night, the Alpena News reported.

So a Texas training unit flies aging F-16s to Michigan for a training exercise and a football flyover, and one of them nearly obliterates a neighborhood. The 149th Fighter Wing confirmed the incident and said it is under investigation. That is the same word Americans always get: under investigation. No one is ever held accountable for flying decades-old airframes over civilian communities.

Lockheed Martin, which acquired the F-16 production line from General Dynamics in 1993, profits from every sustainment contract, every upgrade, every spare part keeping these aging birds in the air. The F-16 is one of the most exported fighter jets on the planet — a cash cow for the defense contractor class. Meanwhile, the American towns underneath the flight paths absorb the risk.

The exact cause — bird strike or mechanical failure in an airframe old enough to be the pilot's father — remains under investigation. The Pentagon will issue a report. Lockheed will keep billing. And the next time a Fighting Falcon loses an engine over a residential area, Americans may not walk away from it.