SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - On Friday, friends, family and fellow marines remembered pilot Taj Sareen during a memorial service at MCAS Miramar.
“Taj was a combat proven aviator, a gifted F-18 instructor. He was a leader and mentor without equal," said Lt. Commander Jerry Estell.
The U.S. Marine fighter pilot that was killed when his F-18 crashed after taking off from a British air base in eastern England.
He was 37-years-old.
Sareen had taken off from a U.S. Air Force Base in Suffolk when his fighter-jet crashed into a field, going up in a large fireball.
According to witnesses, the plane made a lot of noise as it was going down, but they credit Sareen for maneuvering the plane away from homes.
Sareen did manage to eject, but did not survive.
RELATED STORY: [Pilot killed in England identified as San Diego man]
Sareen, a member of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 232, had been overseas as part of Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response Central Command 15.2, in support of allied military interventions against the Islamic State.
Sareen, a native of Hillsborough in the San Francisco Bay Area, joined the Marine Corps in February 2005. In 2010, he deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
Taj Sareen is survived by a daughter.