F-18 Crashes and Explodes Into Apartment Building

sayareakd

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F-18 Crashes and Explodes Into Apartment Building




A Navy F-18 fighter just went down between a Virginia Beach grade school and an animal rescue center—and the result is an enormous flaming heap of jet wreckage.
WAVY-TV reports "the Navy told WAVY.com the plane was an F18 Strike fighter squadron 106," and is clearly still ablaze from on the ground images. No word on whether any pilot was injured (or dead), but there are already reports of injured pedestrians. No word on what caused the plane, which costs tens of millions of dollars to go down, but it somehow managed to avoid hitting a minigolf course and water park, though nearby residences may not have been spared. [WAVY-TV]

Are you near the crash? Have you heard from anyone nearby or taken any pictures? Email me.

Update 12:56 PM EST: A local NBC affiliate says both F-18 pilots have been taken to the hospital after ejecting. A nearby apartment building (!) is being searched for casualties.


 

Ray

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Happens.

Nothing usual.

But good photos!
 

indian_sukhoi

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Looking at the pictures, It doesnt seem to be big explosion although.

Hope they wernt any casualties
 

Bachchu Yadav

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Thank god ! Planes also fall in other country, Otherwise I thought that Indian pilots are master in this account.:D
 

W.G.Ewald

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Aircraft came from Oceana NAS.

Naval Air Station Oceana
Installation Information

There were a quarter of a million takeoffs and landings at Naval Air Station Oceana last year. Over six miles of runways set the stage for this Master Jet Base serving the station's assigned squadrons and transient military air traffic.
 

W.G.Ewald

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From Naval News Service:

F/A-18 Crashes in Virginia Beach - The Jet Observer: Top Stories

F/A-18 Crashes in Virginia Beach
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (NNS) -- An F/A-18D assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106 crashed in Virginia Beach, Va. April 6.

Initial reports indicate that at approximately 12:05 p.m., the jet crashed just after takeoff at a location just off of the base.

Both aircrew safely ejected from the aircraft.

VFA-106 is based at Naval Air Station Oceana, and serves as the East Coast Fleet Replacement Squadron. Their mission is to train Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18 Replacement Pilots and Weapon Systems Officers (WSOs) to support fleet commitments.

The Navy is coordinating with local authorities.
 

W.G.Ewald

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2 Navy pilots eject from jet and send fighter careening into apartments, destroying buildings - The Washington Post
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Emergency crews searched the charred remains of a Virginia Beach apartment complex Friday after a fighter jet crashed into it just after takeoff in what Navy officials called a "catastrophic mechanical malfunction."

Two Navy pilots — a student and an instructor from nearby Naval Air Station Oceana — ejected just before the jet careened into the apartment complex, demolishing sections of some buildings and engulfing others in flames. Some 40 apartment units were damaged or destroyed in the crash, but hours later no fatalities had been reported.

Seven people, including both pilots, were taken to a hospital. All except one of the pilots were released by late afternoon.

Virginia Beach Fire Department Capt. Tim Riley said more than two dozen residents remained unaccounted for, although all but the six most damaged apartments had been searched.

"What I'm praying for, what I'm thinking about now is that we don't find any more victims," Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms told reporters.

The two-seat F18 Hornet had dumped loads of fuel before crashing, though it wasn't clear if that was because of a malfunction or an intentional maneuver by the pilots, said Capt. Mark Weisgerber with U.S. Fleet Forces Command. The jet went down less than 10 miles from Oceana.

Bruce Nedelka, the Virginia Beach EMS division chief, said witnesses saw fuel being dumped from the jet before it went down, and that fuel was found on buildings and vehicles in the area.

The plane not having as much fuel on board "mitigated what could have been an absolute massive, massive fireball and fire," Nedelka said. "With all of that jet fuel dumped, it was much less than what it could have been."

The crash happened in the Hampton Roads area, which has a large concentration of military bases, including Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval base in the world. Naval Air Station Oceana, where the F/A-18D that crashed was assigned, is located in Virginia Beach. Both the pilots were from Virginia Beach, Weisgerber said.

Weisgerber said he did not know how many times the student pilot had been in the air, but that the instructor was "extremely experienced."

Dozens of police cars, fire trucks and other emergency vehicles filled the densely populated neighborhood where the plane crashed. Yellow fire hoses snaked through side streets as fire crews poured water on the charred rooftops of brick apartment houses. By late afternoon, the fire had been put out.

Residents of the apartment complex described a confusing scene and an apologetic pilot.

Colby Smith said his house started shaking and then the power went out, as he saw a red and orange blaze outside his window. He ran outside, where he saw billowing black smoke and then came upon the pilot as he ran to a friend's home.

"I saw the parachute on the house and he was still connected to it, and he was laying on the ground with his face full of blood," Smith told WVEC-TV.

"The pilot said, 'I'm sorry for destroying your house.'"

Smith said he and another man helped the pilot onto the street.

Patrick Kavanaugh, who lives in the complex where the jet crashed, opened up his sliding glass door after hearing a loud explosion and saw one of the jet's pilots on the ground with blood on his face. Kavanaugh said the pilot, whom he described as a "young boy," was very upset and apologetic.

"The poor guy was in shock. I checked for broken bones and opened wounds," said Kavanaugh, who spent 23 years in the rescue squad and retired in 1996.

Despite having suffered several heart attacks and open-heart surgery, Kavanaugh said his old rescue skills kicked in as he dragged the pilot around the corner and away from the fire before several other explosions occurred.

As authorities closed roads in the neighborhood, traffic backed up on side streets and on nearby Interstate 264, with slow-moving columns of vehicles bringing drivers to a virtual standstill early Friday afternoon.

Edna Lukens, who works at the apartment complex across the street from the crash, said she saw three apartment buildings on fire.

"We heard this loud noise and we looked out the window and there was smoke all in the sky. Then the flames started going up in the sky, and then the apartment building just started burning and the police was called and everybody came out," Lukens said.

Felissa Ezell, 71, was sitting in a folding chair outside her townhouse near the crash site Friday and recalled hearing the crash as she returned home earlier in the day.

"Oh, my God, I heard three really loud explosions, then the black smoke went up high in the sky," she said.

The same model of fighter jet, an F/A-18D, crashed in December 2008 while returning to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after a training exercise in a San Diego neighborhood. That crash killed four members of one family and destroyed two homes.

The Marine Corps said the jet suffered a mechanical failure, but a series of bad decisions led the pilot — a student — to bypass a potentially safe landing at a coastal Navy base after his engine failed. The pilot ejected and told investigators he screamed in horror as he watched the jet plow into the neighborhood, incinerating two homes. A federal judge ordered the U.S. government to pay the family nearly $18 million in restitution.

Most flights from Naval Air Station Oceana are training flights, Weisgerber said.

"This is where the Navy teaches our F18 pilots for the very first time in fleet-representative aircraft," he said.
 

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