FA-18 CRASH in Va. Beach - all safe

[Foiled Again]

You might have heard, or certainly will soon, that an FA-18 crashed on a practice flight from Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, VA. They were practicing carrier landings.

For those of you who are familiar - both the Va. Beach KOA and Holiday Trav-L Park are seconds from the east end of one runway. I'm staying at Holiday this week. The crash was north of both of the campgrounds so everyone there is fin. The plane went down in a courtyard of the Mayflower apartment complex. Several buildings are fire damaged or destroyed, but so far, there are no civilian injuries or deaths being reported. The plane did not have a direct hit on any of the buildings.

A Good Friday miracle if it holds and no one is discovered in the ashes.

The pilot and copilot ejected "sideways" according to eyewitnesses, at very low altitude. The pilot actually got his chute hung on the roof of a burning building. A Virginia Beach EMT lives in the apartments - and with the help of several others - they dragged the pilot to safety. He started the evacuation of the complex before the firetrucks even got there! The co-pilot apparently landed a bit farther out. Both are in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

It's a mess and a lot of people in the complex have probably lost everything they own, but the pilots obviously stayed with the plane until the last second trying to find a place to hit where there would be as little damage as possible. They hit less than 1000 feet North of I-264, a six lane main highway to the resort area - right at on ramps for the intersection with Birdneck Road. Five blocks further east - the heart of the resort area. Just to the North - Laskin Road and shopping centers galore.

Whew. Please pray for the news to remain so good. The Navy is already moving to help the people in the apartment complex, but your good wishes would be appreciated.

Paula

[Goal15]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

You might have heard, or certainly will soon, that an FA-18 crashed on a practice flight from Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, VA. They were practicing carrier landings.

For those of you who are familiar - both the Va. Beach KOA and Holiday Trav-L Park are seconds from the east end of one runway. I'm staying at Holiday this week. The crash was north of both of the campgrounds so everyone there is fin. The plane went down in a courtyard of the Mayflower apartment complex. Several buildings are fire damaged or destroyed, but so far, there are no civilian injuries or deaths being reported. The plane did not have a direct hit on any of the buildings.

A Good Friday miracle if it holds and no one is discovered in the ashes.

The pilot and copilot ejected "sideways" according to eyewitnesses, at very low altitude. The pilot actually got his chute hung on the roof of a burning building. A Virginia Beach EMT lives in the apartments - and with the help of several others - they dragged the pilot to safety. He started the evacuation of the complex before the firetrucks even got there! The co-pilot apparently landed a bit farther out. Both are in hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

It's a mess and a lot of people in the complex have probably lost everything they own, but the pilots obviously stayed with the plane until the last second trying to find a place to hit where there would be as little damage as possible. They hit less than 1000 feet North of I-264, a six lane main highway to the resort area - right at on ramps for the intersection with Birdneck Road. Five blocks further east - the heart of the resort area. Just to the North - Laskin Road and shopping centers galore.

Whew. Please pray for the news to remain so good. The Navy is already moving to help the people in the apartment complex, but your good wishes would be appreciated.

Paula

Good Friday prayers for all. Crew very fortunate if they did eject horizontal. Your acct much better than initial Yahoo reports. Thanks, Paula!

[vswingfield]

Thanks for the report, Paula.

Glad that the news is good. The crew was, indeed, very fortunate.

I hope all goes well for those in the apartments that lost their homes. The good news is that they are alright and can regroup.

[Bruce B]

Amazing!
Do you work as a news reporter?
Nice account of the situation. I am happy that no one seems to be hurt!
Bruce

[Foiled Again]

My business partner and I run Answer Center - a local telephone answering service.

We have to keep the TV and internet up 24/7 simply because everything like this affects the business of our clients. We were talking to a new customer whose business is quite close to there. His son goes to a middle school in the neighborhood and his mother-in-law lives about a block away.

Virginia Beach is the biggest "small town" in America - everyone is only 4 degrees of separation from everyone else.

I don't know for sure if I have friends who live there yet - but it feels like I do. I'm going to go home and cull my wardrobe for nice things people might need and get a bunch of $10 gift cards so people can buy new undies!

Paula

[prudencepb]

Gotta love ya big sis! Glad you're OK, and prayers for the pilots and families in the complex.

[Janet H]

Here are some newsy links for current info:

F-18 Crashes into Apartment Building and Explodes (Updating Live)

F-18 Navy jet crashes into Virginia Beach apartment complex

[Bruce B]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

My business partner and I run Answer Center - a local telephone answering service.

We have to keep the TV and internet up 24/7 simply because everything like this affects the business of our clients. We were talking to a new customer whose business is quite close to there. His son goes to a middle school in the neighborhood and his mother-in-law lives about a block away.

Virginia Beach is the biggest "small town" in America - everyone is only 4 degrees of separation from everyone else.

I don't know for sure if I have friends who live there yet - but it feels like I do. I'm going to go home and cull my wardrobe for nice things people might need and get a bunch of $10 gift cards so people can buy new undies!

Paula

Again nice job!
Thanks
Bruce

[ROBERT CROSS]

Great job Paula!!

God Bless all.

As a MCAS veteran, reading some of those Facebook posts on the news links makes my blood boil.
They have no idea what those Pilots were going thru. Assigning blame at this point accomplishes nothing.

Prayers for the victims.

Bob

[JimGolden]

I heard this on the radio about two hours ago (I live one state over) and thought "Dang, that's right where we camped last summer!" I drove right by Oceana and they have an F-14 on a pole out by the road. I thought it was wicked cool to see the 14's and 18's flying over (I'm a pilot but the hottest thing I've flown was either a 1941 Stearman biplane, a Cessna 206, or a Vans RV-7...take your pick of which genre you like best....but none of them will go 1500mph....) I'm glad no one was hurt seriously.

[SeeMore]

The news accounts report three in area hospitals and none with life threatening injuries.

[Foiled Again]

Just went to Lupper (lunch/supper) at a "dive" restaurant on Laskin Rd. The police and military are working in lock step to get everything under control. The FAA & NCIS will be going through the scene with fine toothed combs for weeks I'm sure.

There are three people in hospitals - so far all expected to recover. Many of the residents of Mayfair Mews Apts. (corrected name) are retired, so it's to be hoped that the stress doesn't result in heart problems over the next few weeks.

I imagine the news will cover this at 6:00 tonight - If there's anything local that doesn't make the national news I'll update this thread.

Paula

[Lily&Me]

Could have been so much worse.

Thanks for the update.


Maggie

[Jack46]

There were in fact five or six injured, including the student pilot and instructor. The news here is currently reporting that all have been released from the hospital except one of the naval aviators. First Responders are still searching through the damaged/destroyed buiidlings, so we are keeping are fingers X'd. Jack

[Foiled Again]

Originally Posted by Jack46

There were in fact five or six injured, including the student pilot and instructor. The news here is currently reporting that all have been released from the hospital except one of the naval aviators. First Responders are still searching through the damaged/destroyed buiidlings, so we are keeping are fingers X'd. Jack

Yep - that is the latest news. I've read about several of these military crashes, and without exception, the list of injured/killed is amazingly short. Pilots are so highly trained and so dedicated they'll go down with their planes if it means the plane hits in a less poplulated area.

It must be 14 years or more ago, but there was a Reserve Squadron doing their active duty practice with their usual "vintage" planes - not the newest stuff by a long shot. Flying close formation, there was a mid air collision (touch) about 160 miles out - one plane barely damaged, the other lost almost 1/3 of a wing and almost all of it's tail. The pilot was advised to eject, but he kept the plane under control and with an escort plane flew back to Oceana and landed safely. Nothing hit the media until the plane was down, but even seasoned "regular Navy" pilots simply couldn't believe anyone could have flown it 160 miles and landed it without incident.... and this from a weekend warrior.

Be impressed.

Be very impressed with what happened today - You might never want to launder their flight suits - but they pulled off something equivalent to the miracle on the Hudson. Not quite that kind of storybook ending, but everyone is alive and recovering.

Of course NO pilot wants to eject. The ejection seat is great for saving life, but it's often a career ending choice. The rocket blast can cause spinal disc compression and eye problems including detached retinas have happened. Wait too long, you float down into your own fireball, or worse you eject upside down at 500 feet and you get the "Polish Parachute" - opens on impact.

Paula

[JFScheck]

Yea for Martin Baker - some AME is getting a case of beer tonight...

[dkottum]

Hope he shares it with the PR.

doug k

[ROBERT CROSS]

Originally Posted by dkottum

Hope he shares it with the PR.

doug k

Damn straight...whoever signed the cards on those seats deserves it.

RLC
VMFA-122
MCAS El Toro
MOS 7113

[Chuck]

Originally Posted by Foiled Again

...but even seasoned "regular Navy" pilots simply couldn't believe anyone could have flown it 160 miles and landed it without incident.... and this from a weekend warrior.

seems counter-intuitive, but actually, the reserve pilots are the more "seasoned" bunch, by far. These people are almost exclusively former full-time military. (very, very rare for someone to join the reserve/'guard "off the street" and get sent to flight school; so they just don't have any "new" pilots). Average flight time of reserve pilots is "thousands" of hours, while the average flight time of active duty pilots is about 600.

[jgerardi]

Originally Posted by ROBERT CROSS

Great job Paula!!

God Bless all.

As a MCAS veteran, reading some of those Facebook posts on the news links makes my blood boil.
They have no idea what those Pilots were going thru. Assigning blame at this point accomplishes nothing.

Prayers for the victims.

Bob

As Robert knows, the reason modern aviation is so remarkably safe, is that the Aviation community tries to avoid the "blame game". Avoid "who screwed up"! Better "what went wrong , How can we do better, and what can we do to avoid this in the future?" People report problems rather than hide them. Unfortunately hospitals are 20 years behind Aviation in adopting this culture of safety. Checklists, debriefings, and walkarounds are just a few examples of aviation safety techniques that can be applied to any complex situation (like towing an Airstream or doing a total hip replacement)
Thanks again Robert for words of wisdom.
Joe G