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You may have heard in the news today about an FA-18 fighter jet crashing in San Diego. Well, it happened just three blocks from our house!
I heard a couple pops like gunshots or something, then a dull boom followed by a very large boom. Ran to the window, saw the neighbor looking up the street and yelling, "HOLY &$@#!"
I grabbed my camera and ran outside. Saw flames and a tall piller of smoke coming up from the middle of the street. Got there and saw flaming debris in the street, wrecked cars, and chunks of aircraft all over the place. Helped a guy who was trying to move his truck away from the fire, but it was hung up on a big piece of the aircraft.
Someone spotted a parachute in a tree just below the edge of the canyon, so a few of us when to check it out. The chute was pretty tangled and there was no one in the ejection seat. We looked around in all the bushes for the pilot but didn't find anyone. Later I found out that the jet was a two seater, but only one pilot was onboard. He came down safely a few blocks away. What we found was the empty second seat.
Tragically, two homes were destroyed by the impact and four people killed. I feel so sad for the families who lost their homes and loved ones.
I've posted my pics here:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/FA18_Crash.html
Glad to hear the pilot got out, My dad is a retired aircraft sheetmetal mechanic working mostly on WWII and early jet aircraft, we have lost alot of friends over the years to crashes, never a good thing to happen. The Pilot normally separates from the seat seconds after punching out of the aircraft, so its not abnormal to find an empty seat. Sorry to hear about the lost of life on the ground and the houses. Pilots are a special breed if the pilot could have avoided the houses/people he would have even if it cost him his own life.
Ray, I saw that in the news. That had to be terrifying to see all the destruction. Good thinking on grabbing your camera; I would have forgotten mine.
Glad it didn't come down on you.
shocking! very sad for the families.
I use to live in the area and wondered if this would ever happen. We were on the west and a little south of the base between the 5 and 805 right under the flight path. I was so close we could see the writing on the bottom of the aircraft.
I know there was some concern when they moved the 15 freeway to buid the longer runway on the east side of the base. Maybe they should of listen.
Holy cow, Ray, that must have been terrifying. I'm glad you and the family are OK and sad for those who lost their lives. It sounds like you kept your wits about you and did everything you could to help. Somethng catastrophic must have happened on approach for the F-18 to have gone down. There have been persistent problems with fatigue cracks with the F-18 and I hope this crash was not a result of a fuselage failure, since they were supposed to have fixed the problem.
It has been big news over here as well, very sad accident.
Man that wreck screwed up our world last night. I was out there shortly, just dropping off Marines.
Worst part is one of our officer lives right there too, he had to walk a block to get home before going to work.
Josh, I can imagine that crash would have made for a difficult night for the Marines. I'm glad your officer was OK. I've worked a number of plane crashes but none that crashed into homes. Dealing with them out in the woods was bad enough let alone in the middle of a residential neighborhood.
Ken, looks like there was an engine failure on approach from initial reports, which almost always turn out to inaccurate. There's already one Congressman grandstanding on getting all the maintenance records for all F/A-18's to prove a connection between the stress fractures and the crash. Assuming a wing didn't fall off, it seems highly unlikely that a stress fracture would have caused this.
Man is far from perfect. Man made machines unfortunately carry these flaws. Sadly we are sometimes reminded of how imperfect we and our machines can be.
To keep a "positive" mood on base, I heard someone say, "Unfortunately the price of freedom is paid in innocent lives, this time they were American citizens."
Are they still up to 4? I haven't watched the news, I worked again last night.
Josh, as far as I know, the search has been competed and the death toll on the ground is 4. Unfortunately, 3 of them were a Korean family with a young child that just arrived here 3 months ago. Fate is a strange thing.
Ok, Jim, thanks. Ray I just sent you a PM about the photos...
yeah, this is sad. the pilot tried hard to avoid and drop it in a clear area.. just didn't work.. prayers to those lost
Damn if something like that happened on my street I would have crapped a brick.
What a sad state of affairs for the families involved. Our prayers go out to them.
It's unusual for a twin engine jet to "lose power" on both engines. Twin engine jets can fly on one engine, especially an aircraft like the FA18 with it's amazing thrust to weight ratio. I'm wondering about fuel contamination as a possible cause... Birds could possibly be another cause... It will be interesting to see the investigation unfold.
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