3rd MAW F-18s collide off San Diego

Two F-18 Hornets, belonging to the 3rd Marine Air Wing, out of NAS Miramar collided during a training flight off San Diego. One aircraft successfully landed at NAS North Island, while the other pilot ejected and was recovered by crews from the USS Carl Vinson.

They haven't officially said which Squadron the aircraft belonged to. VMFA -232, which is part of the wing and based at Miramar has lost three aircraft and two pilots since October 2015.

abcnews.go.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

I was in that airwing. Use to be in El Torro CA but moved to Miramar. VMFA 314 Black Knights was my unit. Same unit they used for Independence Day movie. Very sad for me. A lot of people do not know the Marines are pilots as well.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ouch. Glad they are both alive. Any word on the pilot who ejected? I just watched a small documentary today about ejecting at super sonic speeds and usually if the pilot even survives, they are ripped up and broken pretty good, if they were going at those speeds.

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

He's in stable condition with minor ejection related injuries. Usually that means bruising, spinal trauma that can take several weeks to heal, and other minor injuries.

An F-15E pilot is one of the only to survive a supersonic ejection over the Atlantic and was lucky to survive.

a reply to: Zaphod58

minor ejection related injuries.

So he is shorter now .

a reply to: hutch622

At least a couple inches. He'll get a little of that back.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: iTruthSeeker

He's in stable condition with minor ejection related injuries. Usually that means bruising, spinal trauma that can take several weeks to heal, and other minor injuries.

An F-15E pilot is one of the only to survive a supersonic ejection over the Atlantic and was lucky to survive.

Ah okay cool. I knew ejecting can be dangerous but never knew that it can be REALLY dangerous, as far as the types of injuries.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Two inches is a huge amount when you think about it . The seat must do a great job of keeping his spine straight .

a reply to: hutch622

If you have time to get your butt and back shoved back on the pan, you tend to come through with less compression to your spine. Compression can be anywhere from less than half an inch, to two to three inches, some permanent.

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

Ejection is a pretty brutal event. You're subjected to several hundred instantaneous Gs. One of the B-2 pilots that ejected on Guam spent three weeks in the hospital in Hawaii with spinal compression injuries.

The ejection I was talking about before was Capt Brian Udell. He was an Eagle driver from Mountain Home, and survived an ejection at over 780 mph. His WSO didn't survive.

Maybe in the future, a break-away cockpit with its own chute system or something. But I am sure they have thought of that already and whatever complications it may bring.

a reply to: iTruthSeeker

The F-111, and B-1A used an ejection capsule. They don't really work well with a forward/back seating arrangement that most of our aircraft with ejection seats use.

Great video!! A nice break from politics

a reply to: Zaphod58

dont forget the 2 men that sorta ejected from an sr-71 at mach 3 when a drone launch went wrong. they both survived the ejection but on man drowned in the ocean when he opened his visor and water flooded his suit.

a reply to: TheScale

Yep. They technically don't qualify as being the fastest ejection because they were more thrown out than ejected, but that's still the fastest anyone has ever survived coming out of an aircraft.

FA-18's are some old jets. I know they were around from memory when they bombed Libya in the 80's. Have to be getting on 40 years old. I honestly can't believe these are still around but it is a very good aircraft. Very versatile. I know they are capable of carrying a nuclear missile but I guess everything is these days.

a reply to: LifeMode

Most of the C/Ds are either upgraded to C+ or are in the original configuration and have gone through SLEP. They're also late 80s or early 90s builds.

a reply to: LifeMode

The USMC is down to 87 mission capable jets out of the 276 they own. In the last 18 months that's dropped from the quoted minimum of 174!

www.combataircraft.net...

a reply to: Donkey09

Their mission capable rate is the lowest of any of the services. They've been pushing Depot level maintenance for years and now they're something like three years behind. Some units are so far behind they're trying to push them off until they transition to F-35s.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Guess that's what happens when you don't have enough airframes for the missions and the ones you do have are old and tired. They must have had a pretty horrendous operational tempo over the past few years.