Navy F-18 Crashes in VA

[RavenSEAL]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/06/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia/?hpt=hp_t1

[Updated at 1:07 p.m. ET] A Navy jet crashed Friday near Virginia Beach, Virginia, a military spokesman said.
The plane appears to have crashed into some apartments, and two apartment buildings were on fire, CNN affiliate WTKR reported, citing witnesses.
The jet was from Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Authorities did not immediately know the status of the crew of the two-seater F/A-18, said Lt. Cmdr. Mike Kafka, a Navy spokesman.
A witness, George Pilkington, told CNN that he saw the jet strike an apartment building.
"When the initial impact happened, there was debris and pieces of the airplane flying everywhere,” hitting other buildings, Pilkington said. “There’s damage to different parts of the buildings all around it.”

 

[Dominato3r]

Ooh a second before me

 

[Eli]

Friend in VA beach was just talking about this, says the local news is going nuts. Sounds like it's going to be pretty tragic..

 

[lupi]

funny that i havent heard anything about this till now.

 

[RavenSEAL]

funny that i havent heard anything about this till now.

Maybe that's because it JUST happened?

 

[rivan]

George Pilkington, an eye witness to the crash, said he was the plane flying low, with its nose up and tail down, ejecting fuel - which struck him as unusual. The engine was straining, he said.
"It came over the top of my truck emptying fuel," Pilkington said.

Presumably making the crash a LOT less tragic than it might have been otherwise.

 

[lupi]

Maybe that's because it JUST happened?

happened over an hour ago.

 

[FoBoT]

Heavy smoke rises from the scene of a Navy jet crash in Virginia Beach on Friday.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/04/0...s-in-virginia/?test=latestnews##ixzz1rHahRchL

 

[ghost recon88]

Looks like the 2 person crew ejected, but odds are good there were people at home in those apartment buildings

 

[BUTCH1]

Might be to quick to respond with this not knowing any facts but I thought if a military aircraft is going to crash doesn't the pilot have a duty to make sure it does not hit homes, apts. ect?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

good thing he was releasing the fuel.
he must have known it was going down

@butch
im assuming they try to avoid residential areas

 

[RavenSEAL]

Might be to quick to respond with this not knowing any facts but I thought if a military aircraft is going to crash doesn't the pilot have a duty to make sure it does not hit homes, apts. ect?

One can only do so much controlling a 32,0000lbs, flying, killing machine while it's engine is about to flip a shit.

 

[lupi]

Might be to quick to respond with this not knowing any facts but I thought if a military aircraft is going to crash doesn't the pilot have a duty to make sure it does not hit homes, apts. ect?

airfield located in the center of miles and miles of housing and sounds like it went down just after takeoff.

 

[Kadarin]

Might be to quick to respond with this not knowing any facts but I thought if a military aircraft is going to crash doesn't the pilot have a duty to make sure it does not hit homes, apts. ect?

Yes, but it's not always possible.

 

[EagleKeeper]

airfield located in the center of miles and miles of housing and sounds like it went down just after takeoff.

You build housing 1-2 miles from the end of an active military runway ...

 

[lupi]

http://maps.google.com/?ll=36.850724,-75.992981&spn=0.002959,0.004128&t=h&z=19

Plane traveled down the center of this pic, right down flemming drive. Hit towards the right of the off centered buildings forming the west side of the appartment complex. The small southern building on the west end looks to be gone, the one just north of that is damaged as well as the one just to the SE. Plane looks to have continued until parts hit the buildings forming the east end of the appartment complex.

 

[skyking]

Yes, but it's not always possible.

Several years back there was a crash like this near San Diego, the pilot tried but did not get clear of a residential area. It was so tragic
This father was at work, and it killed his whole family.

 

[ghost recon88]

You build housing 1-2 miles from the end of an active military runway ...

Virginia and DC have houses packed tighter than a can of sardines, not sure the appeal of living so close to the capital

 

[lupi]

You build housing 1-2 miles from the end of an active military runway ...

you do when the field has been there forever, housing was allowed to be built up just about next to the fence line, and every attempt and building a secondary field for practicing has been voted down by the local officials.

 

[BUTCH1]

One can only do so much controlling a 32,0000lbs, flying, killing machine while it's engine is about to flip a shit.

Yea, like I said we don't know the facts yet, if he just finished rotation and total engine failure his options might have been non-existent..

 

[lupi]

http://maps.google.com/?ll=36.850724,-75.992981&spn=0.002959,0.004128&t=h&z=19

Plane traveled down the center of this pic, right down flemming drive. Hit towards the right of the off centered buildings forming the west side of the appartment complex. The small southern building on the west end looks to be gone, the one just north of that is damaged as well as the one just to the SE. Plane looks to have continued until parts hit the buildings forming the east end of the appartment complex.

just saw a better pic, looks like it was skewing at a diagonal so after it hit near the center of the west side, it veered to the left and hit the north of the two small buildings on the east side then hit hard the long line of buildings on the NE corner of the complex.

 

[SP33Demon]

You'd think the geniuses that run that base would have take the proper precautionary measures to ensure this never happens. /facepalm.PR.Nightmare

 

[lupi]

You'd think the geniuses that run that base would have take the proper precautionary measures to ensure this never happens. /facepalm.PR.Nightmare

/facepalm was about the only correct part of that.

 

[lupi]

looking at the map, fuselage is on its belly facing north right on top of where the north of those 2 trees are.

hard to tell what the plane hit and what just went up when fuel and flames got it.

 

[CVSiN]

This was a jet from my old squadron VFA-106 Gladiators the east coast RAG squadron which is the outfit that teaches pilots to fly the F/A-18.

This is gonna be sad.. glad the pilots got out but they couldn't of hit a worse target..