VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia (AP) ― Zooming along at 170 mph in a fighter jet carrying thousands of pounds of volatile fuel, two Navy pilots faced nothing but bad choices when their aircraft malfunctioned over Virginia’s most populated city.
Somehow, however, the student pilot and his instructor and everyone on the ground survived Friday when the men ejected from their F/A-18D jet moments before it crashed in a fireball in an apartment complex courtyard. The pilots and five on the ground were hurt, but all but one aviator were out of the hospital hours later.
Crews had carefully checked the apartments, and all residents had been accounted for early Saturday, fire department Capt. Tim Riley said Saturday. No deaths were reported.
“We’re not actively searching for anybody,’’ Riley said.
That could change if, for instance, authorities did not know about a guest that had been staying in an apartment, Riley said.
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The burning fuselage of an F/A-18 Hornet lies smoldering after crashing into a residential building in Virginia on Friday. (AP-Yonhap News) |
The airmen were from Naval Air Station Oceana, less than 16 kilometers away. They were able to safely escape the aircraft, which weighs up to 22,700 kilograms fully fueled and armed, before it careened into the apartment complex, demolishing sections of some buildings and engulfing others in flames. Some 40 apartment units were damaged or destroyed. Military authorities are investigating what happened.
The two-seat jet 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.
Virginia Beach EMS division chief Bruce Nedelka 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.”
While the fuel loss could have been tied to the malfunction, aviation safety expert and decorated pilot J.F. Joseph added, “I would say every action they took was an attempt to mitigate damage on the ground, up to and including the loss of life.”
“Catastrophic engine system failure right after takeoff, which is always the most critical phase of flying, leaves very, very few options,” he said. “You literally run out of altitude, air speed and ideas all at the same time,” he said.
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 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 the instructor was “extremely experienced.”
Joseph said the airman being trained would have had 1 1/2 years of intensive training before he taking flight from Oceana.
“This is not a student naval aviator. They are well-trained,” he said. “The mitigating factor in this is there was an eminently well-trained and qualified trainer in the back seat.”
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
