U.S. Navy Jet Crashes in Virginia

[rohailmalhi]

A US Navy F/A-18 jet crashed into a low-rise apartment building in Virginia Beach on Friday causing an inferno, pictures from US broadcasters showed, with emergency responders rushing to the scene.

The two crew members successfully ejected from the jet over the populated area before the crash, CNN reported, but their condition was unknown.

But their condition was unknown with one crew member reported to have been taken to Sentara Virginia Beach hospital, as firefighters were desperately trying to control the blaze.

"There were flames coming out of its engine at the back, which I just thought was afterburn or whatever... but the plane got lower and lower. I saw one pilot eject," witness Jon Swain told MSNBC.

"I understand there were two, but I only saw one. And then you know, probably five seconds later, I was at the building where it hit. It burst into flames," he said.

The plane smashed into a low-rise apartment block, he said.

"It hit it dead center. And yeah, it's pretty traumatic," Swain said. "There were a few people running from the building."

Emergency vehicles with sirens wailing rushed to the scene but there was no immediate word on casualties, as smoke was seen billowing from the two-story apartment block.

The Navy and the Virginia Beach police department could not be immediately contacted by AFP

US-Navy-F-18-jet-crashes-into-Virginia-apartment-building - Telegraph

 

[StormShadow]

Hope there are ZERO causalities!!!

 

[Carlos 'Cypher' Renato]

Thank God that no one died

 

[Sugarcane]

Emergency crews had extinguished fires and were searching for victims at a cluster of apartments in Virginia Beach, Va., Friday after a Navy F/A-18 jet crashed into the complex, destroying two buildings and damaging several others, authorities and witnesses said.

Three hours after the crash, medical personnel at a hospital reported that eight were injured, including the two pilots, none with life-threatening injuries. No fatalities have been reported.

The two pilots in the jet ejected but one was briefly tangled at the crash site and had to be freed from the wreckage by residents at the scene, David Schleck, assistant city editor at the Virginia Pilot, told msnbc cable television.

"(The pilot) was snagged on the burning building," said Schleck. "They actually cut him free from the building and then emergency crews showed up a little bit later and were able to get him a safe distance from the burning building."

A Navy official told NBC News that both pilots had been taken to a hospital to be checked out.

"They were ambulatory," the official told NBC.

The buildings were in the Mayfair Mews Apartments, about four miles northeast of the Naval Air Base Oceana, where the jet had taken off. Virginia Beach, about 400 miles south of Washington, D.C. on the Atlantic coast, is a major military center as well as vacation destination.

Cmdr. Phil Rosi of the Navy said the two-seat jet fighter crashed about 12:05 p.m. shortly after takeoff and both crew members ejected from the aircraft. The jet was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106 at the base, he said.

Witness accounts of the jet dumping fuel before the crash suggest that the pilots averted a worse disaster, Bruce Nedelka, the Virginia Beach EMS division chief, told The Associated Press.

"By doing so, he 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," he said.

Chief Tim Riley of Virginia Beach Fire and Rescue said four to five buildings caught fire and that there was significant damage to about 20 apartments.

Witnesses described a frightening scene as they saw the aircraft plummet toward the ground.

John Swain told msnbc TV he was driving, coming off Interstate 264 to head north.

"The plane came right over us and was clearly in difficulty," he said. "There was flames coming off the back … The plane got lower and lower and just as I turned … it crashed."

He said the jet apparently crashed into what looked like a two-story apartment building.

"Within five seconds of it going down I was at the building where it hit," Swain said.

Ernie Gonzalez, who is retired military, was sitting on the front porch of his daughter-in-law’s house behind the base where the jet had taken off. He said a few other jets had departed before the one that crashed for what was believed to be a practice or training run. The doomed jet quickly ran into trouble.

"He was flying real low like he didn’t have any power,” Gonzalez told msnbc.com by telephone.

"He was smoking really bad. Bad smoke was coming out of the engine. It kind of backfired a couple times. I heard two pops … then 15 seconds later I heard the explosion."

Gonzalez said the other jets then started circling around the crash site.

Amy Miller told The Virginian-Pilot she was outside the cleaners where she works when she saw a plane coming down with fire on its wing.

"I saw two parachutes eject. I saw them open up and then head toward the ground to the right of the jet," she told the newspaper

About two seconds later it crashed, she said.

"It looked like it had either hit the building or slid into it. Part of the building had crumpled up," she said, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

Austin Makie, of Virginia Beach, said he was golfing with two friends on a course a few miles away from where the jet went down. He said they were riding in a cart headed to the next hole when they heard a loud boom.

"We looked around … and there was a very large pile of smoke. There was really big stench like gas in the air," he told msnbc.com.

State and local police were on the scene to assist the military, according to Grazia Moyers, spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Police Department.

"We are taking all possible steps at the state level to provide immediate resources and assistance to those impacted by the crash..." said Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell.

"I deeply regret that some in our community have lost their homes, and I, like many, pray for the well-being of all," said Admiral John C. Harvey, Jr., Commander of U.S. Fleet Forces in a statement on the crash. "I must also offer my deepest gratitude to the citizens of Virginia Beach and the Mayfair Mews Apartments, as well as Virginia Beach's first responders, for their immediate and heroic response to take care of our aircrew after they ejected and all at the scene of the mishap."

Harvey promised a prompt investigation into the cause of the crash.

This is a developing story. Please check back for more information. msnbc

 

[baqai]

Hoax i say ... why? as per 9/11 physics rules laid by USA (CIA)

1. There should be no recognizable debris in case a plane slams into a building.
2. The building shall collapse in a uniform manner.
3. The crash should also lead to a building collapse a block away also in a uniform manner.

 

[gambit]

Hoax i say ... why? as per 9/11 physics rules laid by USA (CIA)

1. There should be no recognizable debris in case a plane slams into a building.
2. The building shall collapse in a uniform manner.
3. The crash should also lead to a building collapse a block away also in a uniform manner.

Aaahhh...Another loony 9/11 conspiracy theories believer. I guess in your universe ALL aircrafts and ALL builidings are exactly alike.

 

[ptldM3]

Hoax i say ... why? as per 9/11 physics rules laid by USA (CIA)

1. There should be no recognizable debris in case a plane slams into a building.
2. The building shall collapse in a uniform manner.
3. The crash should also lead to a building collapse a block away also in a uniform manner.

There was plently of aircraft debris...fail.

 

[T90TankGuy]

Hoax i say ... why? as per 9/11 physics rules laid by USA (CIA)

1. There should be no recognizable debris in case a plane slams into a building.
2. The building shall collapse in a uniform manner.
3. The crash should also lead to a building collapse a block away also in a uniform manner.

get a life mate . there is a whole world out there .

 

[ARSENAL6]

get a life mate . there is a whole world out there .

There was plently of aircraft debris...fail.

Aaahhh...Another loony 9/11 conspiracy theories believer. I guess in your universe ALL aircrafts and ALL builidings are exactly alike.

First get your togue out of the Neocon butt and give us a sinlge proof of any debriis in 9/11 ?

 

[baqai]

wow ... sarcasm is certainly not welcomed on these forums ... as for getting a life i have a right to express my opinion if you don't like it than go suck a lollypop :p

 

[ptldM3]

First get your togue out of the Neocon butt and give us a sinlge proof of any debriis in 9/11 ?

If ever anyone needed to get their head out of their butt it would be you and the looney conspiracy theorists.

Here are photographs of aircraft debris from 911:


http://stj911.org/jones/docs/f175_fragment.jpg


http://drop.ndtv.com/albums/NEWS/911attackonwtc/afp(1).jpg



http://davesweb.cnchost.com/93debris2.jpg



http://img54.echo.cx/img54/6136/91116cut6du.jpg



http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EDU6z08oK...MsHS8/s1600/9-11+Pentagon+Debris+2+resize.jpg



http://wtcdebris.0catch.com/_webimages/streetengine2cutC-th.JPG


http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8602cd1ae868.jpg



http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7788/pentagon1abk4.jpg






Looks like you have been duped 911 conspiracy theorists will believe anything that anyone tells them. The problem with people like yourself is that instead of doing a simple search for yourself you will simply take someone else’s word as truth when they say that there is no debris.

 

[Tshering22]

If ever anyone needed to get their head out of their butt it would be you and the looney conspiracy theorists.

Here are photographs of aircraft debris from 911:


http://stj911.org/jones/docs/f175_fragment.jpg


http://drop.ndtv.com/albums/NEWS/911attackonwtc/afp(1).jpg



http://davesweb.cnchost.com/93debris2.jpg



http://img54.echo.cx/img54/6136/91116cut6du.jpg



http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EDU6z08oK...MsHS8/s1600/9-11+Pentagon+Debris+2+resize.jpg



http://wtcdebris.0catch.com/_webimages/streetengine2cutC-th.JPG


http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8602cd1ae868.jpg



http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7788/pentagon1abk4.jpg






Looks like you have been duped 911 conspiracy theorists will believe anything that anyone tells them. The problem with people like yourself is that instead of doing a simple search for yourself you will simply take someone else’s word as truth when they say that there is no debris.

Ignore him. He still can't get over it.

Let's stick to the topic.

 

[killerx]

it crashed and the end get over it not a big loss better the a commercial air liner loaded with 250 people

 

[canadian icehole]

Dual-engine failure caused jet crash in Va. Beach

The investigation concluded that two almost simultaneous breakdowns hit the twin General Electric F404 engines that power the jet to supersonic speeds.

"We don't have a smoking gun, a definitive source of the malfunction," Branch said after briefing reporters on the results of the judge advocate general's manual of investigation. Two other inquiries - the aircraft mishap board and a standard safety investigation - remain open.

Built in 1987, the jet had flown about 6,500 hours, including four flights in the three days leading up to the crash. The model has a service life of 8,000 hours.

Maintenance in the days and hours before the flight found nothing wrong.

But immediately after takeoff, the aviators felt a series of thumps and bumps on the right side of the jet. They thought that they'd blown a tire and that some of the debris had been sucked into the engine. Following training for that scenario, the instructor sitting in the backseat directed the pilot to keep the plane flying, the landing gear down and the speed under 250 knots.

Actually, the investigation found, the tire wasn't the problem. The right engine failed a second or two after the plane's nose wheel left the runway - most likely, Branch said, because of a fuel leak. The fuel caught fire and destroyed some of the engine's compressor blades, causing a catastrophic stall.

Investigators could not identify the cause of the fuel leak; much of the plane was destroyed in the crash and the fireball that followed.

Losing an engine on takeoff isn't necessarily catastrophic. The remaining engine, switched to afterburner for maximum power, should put out enough thrust for the jet to keep climbing.

But nothing happened when the pilot tried to restart the left afterburner, and the investigation found that the left engine actually started losing power at that point.

After 25 seconds of flight, having reached an altitude of 452 feet, the plane started its descent. Pressure on the stick and a favorable gust of wind slowed its fall for a few seconds but, after 50 seconds of flight, the plane was at an altitude of 270 feet and dropping. When it was about 100 feet above the ground, the plane began rolling and yawing, and the pilot was no longer able to control its movement. At 50 feet above the ground, the crew ejected.

Branch said that the afterburner probably failed because of a problem with its fuel system, but that it's impossible to know the exact reason because so much of the jet was destroyed...The investigation found that it may have been possible to keep the jet aloft if, after the afterburner failed, the crew had raised the landing gear and dropped the external fuel tank to reduce drag and weight.

But because the crew thought the initial engine problems were caused by a blown tire - a conclusion a more experienced pilot might also have made, the report noted - they had only about 10 seconds to consider and execute that course of action when the afterburner failed...

FYI

 

[Zabaniyah]

No casualties? What a miracle!

Was that F-18 old?