Firefighter says an F-18 fighter jet has crashed in a San Diego residential area.

reply to post by asmeone2


We have untold occasions of this happening day in and day out with commercial aircraft. For the most part though no one really thinks about it because it is something that we on the ground cannot control.

I would be more worried about a commercial jet falling from the sky personally. I think we have more of them in the air at one time and they are much larger and can cause more damage (assuming the military jets are unarmed or carrying light arms). I am surprised we don’t hear about this more often though with any form of jet considering the number that are in flight every day.

Raist

reply to post by asmeone2



This has nothing to do with "increased military presense". This has to do with the fact that there is a base RIGHT THERE. There are military planes flying around the area constantly. The base has been there for decades.

Originally posted by MemoryShock
Interesting; I heard a Sonic Boom in the Los Angeles area Last Monday.

I am eagerly awaiting the official comments on this...

Was that the day the shuttle landed? I remember living in LA and hearing sonic booms when the shuttle landed.

I lived on a base recently that suffered crash and the pilot died.
Its such a sad tragic event - even if nobody dies. The families of the pilot sitting at home go thru much anxiety.

Anyways, Ive been watching this unfold on the news. I hope and pray nobody is injured

According to an eyewitness, he found the pilot who was safe, though the second seat ejected it was empty at the time.

Originally posted by sylvrshadow
Another update:

The marines are claiming that the plane is theirs (according to the 10news report). They are on their way to the scene to determine if it is an f-15 or f-18, and i am assuming to start their investigation.

As I recall Marines fly f-18's... never seen a Marine f-15. Thought those were all AF

An interesting note, a gentleman just said on that link from channel 10 I believe it was, that until it came on the news, he, at first, thought it was part of the big practice the emergency crews were having. Said they were told before hand that something like 400 emergency vehicles were having excercises that day on how to deal with terror attacks. He said the jet went right over his house before it crashed approx 1/4 mile away.

Good thing that all those emergency vehicles were all ready to go at the same time that this happened.



[edit on 8-12-2008 by mrsdudara]

Both seats will eject if any one of the pilots hits the eject button. That is set up that way in case one or the other occupants are unable to hit the eject lever. The plane may have had only one occupant, or they just have not found the 2nd person yet.





Cheers!!!!

reply to post by Raist and Layla


Yes I know. But listening to the talk of increasing military presence statistically if will happen more. Think what would have happened if this had been a bomber, for instance. That is all I will say in the interest of not derailing the thread.

Originally posted by sylvrshadow
Another update:

The marines are claiming that the plane is theirs (according to the 10news report). They are on their way to the scene to determine if it is an f-15 or f-18, and i am assuming to start their investigation.

How do they not know who's it is?

They found the guy in the middle of a baseball field close by.

Said he was fine.

Yeah this was only a couple miles from my house - I usually enjoy the free airshow out here from North Island & Mirimar, it's easy to forget things like this can happen.

It seem like the pilot stayed with it trying to bring it in until the last possible second when the aircraft became completely uncontrollable - just what I'd expect from a Marine

Originally posted by Raist
reply to post by asmeone2

 

We have untold occasions of this happening day in and day out with commercial aircraft. For the most part though no one really thinks about it because it is something that we on the ground cannot control.

I would be more worried about a commercial jet falling from the sky personally. I think we have more of them in the air at one time and they are much larger and can cause more damage (assuming the military jets are unarmed or carrying light arms). I am surprised we don’t hear about this more often though with any form of jet considering the number that are in flight every day.

Raist

No doubt!.... Military aircraft are constantly being inspected and having maintenance performed. So much so that the entire Aviation section of the Military is categorized by Maintenance level. Organizational Level is the squadron, Intermediate Level is a group that is attached to a base which can handle higher order maintenence on aircraft, and Depot level which is all ran by civilians for the most part and amounts to the bird being stripped and rebuilt.

Originally posted by xmotex
It seem like the pilot stayed with it trying to bring it in until the last possible second when the aircraft became completely uncontrollable - just what I'd expect from a Marine

I'll second that notion. It doesn't yet appear that any civilians were injured. Let's hope that all involved incur minimal damage to their lives in these already-challenging times.
live feed from cnn.com [no audio]

Well it is a fine example of the extensive training that all military pilots go thorugh. They carry that training over into the civlian areas if they continue to fly for a commercial airline. Even pilots who only fly for the civilian airlines are also trained to attempt to avoid casulties on the ground in case of a crash.

An example of that is when one of the Concord's crashed shortly after take off. It ended up hitting the ground behind a farm house and away from two highways in the middle of a field. Those pilots kept that plane from hitting anything on the ground that would have caused more casulties.




Cheers!!!!

F18s and F15s do look a bit similar, but the Marines don't own any 15s, so it's an 18.

They will try to avoid the population areas in an emergency, but a lot of the bases have the cities built right up to their front gates. They have no choice but to fly over the housing.

As I posted earlier, the pilots will do everything possible to steer a disabled aircraft away from populated areas as much as they can until the very last second that they must eject. It is standard procedure and expected considering the extensive training they go through.



Cheers!!!!

Hi All,

A reply for HunkaHunka & asmeone2, from what I have heard so far, both naval and marine jets fly out of the Miramar base. Now, however, I am reading that the marines have confirmed that the jet was indeed a f-18.

Here is a link to the nbc news story. source

reply to post by RFBurns


It is amazing, apparently the pilot didn't eject until he was 200ft above ground.

It was an F-18D two seater from the VMFAT-101 Sharpshooters training squadron, however although it was a two-seater there was only one aircrew aboard, and he's confirmed to be OK.