When Ricky Nishizuka heard that a B-1B Lancer bomber crashed in southeastern Montana Monday, he didn’t think it could possibly be his son Chad’s plane.

Air Force Capt. Chad Nishizuka of Kailua is a B-1B weapons systems instructor based at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

After all, the family had just lost another son, Air Force Capt. Reid Nishizuka, in the crash of an MC-12W Liberty on April 27 in Afghanistan.

The brothers, Kailua High School graduates just a year apart in age, were so close they had grown up like two peas in a pod.

"It was like, it had to be somebody else’s plane because I can’t imagine it happening to both my sons," Ricky Nishizuka said Wednesday.

But it did happen again. Fortunately in this case, Chad Nishizuka was able to tell his father how he and three other crew members ejected safely before the jet crashed in a pasture.

The good news is that 29-year-old Chad is OK, his father said, adding that his deceased son was probably looking out for his younger sibling from on high.

"He (Chad) is doing fine. He’s back home (in South Dakota), just recuperating," the crew member’s father, who lives in Las Vegas, told the Star-Advertiser.

Ricky Nishizuka added that the latest crash is "kind of surreal, you know, like, ‘How can this happen again?’"

Ellsworth Air Force Base put out a release saying all four crew members sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were receiving treatment or had been released from medical facilities.

The B-1B was flying a training mission when it crashed in a remote area within the Air Force’s Powder River Training Complex near Broadus, Mont., about 30 minutes after taking off from Ellsworth.

The other crew members are Maj. Frank Biancardi II and Capt. Curtis Michael, instructor pilots; and Capt. Brandon Packard, a weapons systems instructor.

Chad Nishizuka previously said he was part of the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth.

When they ejected, crew members were strapped into Advanced Concept Ejection Seats known as ACES II. The seat’s parachute automatically inflates in two to six seconds.

A Montana newspaper reported witnesses saying the plane appeared to catch fire and emit burning debris as it flew.

"I started asking questions about what made the determination that you are going to be ejecting, and I guess they realized that the plane was on fire, so any second it would explode," Ricky Nishizuka said. "So they had to get out of there at any moment.

"And sure enough, witnesses in the ranches around that area said, yeah, as soon as they saw the parachutes come out, they saw the plane explode before it even hit the ground," the father added.

The four crew members landed within a one-mile radius, he said.

Ricky Nishizuka said on his Facebook page, "Thank you Lord and Reid for protecting Chad as he ejected successfully before his B1 bomber crash."

Some news media had said it was nothing short of a miracle that all the crew members ejected in time.

"Reid had to be there to make sure that Chad survived," the father said on Facebook.

Reid Nishizuka was assigned to the 427th Reconnaissance Squadron, Beale Air Force Base, Calif. His plane crashed in Zabul province, Afghanistan, about 110 miles northeast of Kandahar Air Field. There was no enemy activity in the area at the time.

The 30-year-old Kailua native was flying the Air Force’s MC-12W Liberty — a medium- to low-altitude twin-engine turboprop aircraft. Its primary mission is providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support directly to ground forces.

Three other crew members also were killed in the crash.

Chad Nishizuka, who is just a year younger than Reid, took his brother’s death hard.

"I think the big thing is the disbelief," Chad Nishizuka had said shortly after his brother’s death.

Reid had been Chad’s best man when Chad married in 2012. In April, Chad escorted his brother’s body home to Kailua. Reid Nishizuka is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

"We take every day one at a time with Reid’s passing," Ricky Nishizuka said.

He said his son will continue to fly. "That’s for sure," he said.

But asked about the two crashes, the father added, "We don’t need any more experiences like this."