http://www.wtvm.com/story/17351737/f-18-crashes-near-virginia-beach

The sad ironic thing about this, is they delayed ejection to avoid a school, which of course would be their first instinct, but today being Good Friday, there is a good chance school wouldn't have been in session. If so, had they hit it instead, there may have been fewer injuries.

This sucks! I'm glad they didn't hit the school though, and didn't kill anyone.

Does anyone find it the slightest bit eery that, according to that article, there was another accident involving a Hornet exactly 1 year ago?

This sucks! I'm glad they didn't hit the school though, and didn't kill anyone.

 

Let's hope not, they are still looking for other possible victims in the rubble.

Uh oh. That doesn't look good.

The sad ironic thing about this, is they delayed ejection to avoid a school, which of course would be their first instinct, but today being Good Friday, there is a good chance school wouldn't have been in session. If so, had they hit it instead, there may have been fewer injuries.

 

When you are flying an F-18 and have to deal with an emergency, you really don't have time to think about these things. Probably more like he saw a school and his instincts reacted to avoid hitting it. What day it was probably wasn't going through his head at exactly that moment.

 

But true, Maybe the school would have been better, but maybe their was a Good Friday event happening in the school at that time with a large gathering of people as well....Things a pilot can't know when making a split second decision.

 

Cheers

millions of dollars gone..

I'm not blaming the pilots, as I said their first instinct would be to avoid the school, and your right, there may have been some extracurricular activity at the school, that may have increased the danger. It's a hard choice to make whether to crash into a school or an apartment complex. Both has the potential of high casualties both adult and children, Either way they are going to have to live with the consequences My hearts go out to the victims, and the pilots. Right now according to CNN there are 6 people unaccounted for. Let's hope they just wasn't home when it happened.

Officials are now saying everyone is accounted for and no fatalities. This is great news.

 

I used to live next to an Air Force/Navy airport (CFB Shearwater) for years and had low flying aircraft over my house every day. I loved living their as you would wake up to the sound of a SeaKing hovering overhead, sometimes just 100' over the house.

 

I choose to live their because I wanted to wake up every morning and watch these machines before going to work. I never had a fear of one crashing into my house as I knew the folks that flew them, and worked on maintaining the fleet. I am sure many people in Virginia Beach feel the same as those F-18 would be as much apart of that community as well. Both of those pilots lived in the area they crashed so this was their neighbourhood too. I am just happy no one was killed in this incident.

 

Sometimes machines can fail but that doesn't reflect the crew that maintain and fly them, these people are outstanding in what they do.

 

Cheers :D

In all reality, looking at the distance from the end of the runway to the point of impact and just beyond. (VIA GOOGLE MAPS) The pilot was fighting trying to maintain straight and level and make it to the ocean, just a mile or two more away.

 

But realizing the jet was doomed they fought it as long as they could before ejecting.

 

Both crew members were still strapped into their ejection seats, so they were so low the entire ejection sequence didn't even have time to play out. And this in a Martin Baker ZERO/ZERO ejection seat.

 

I'll be they were aiming for that big roadway that ran parallel to the apartment complex but the jet ended up in the complex after they ejected.

 

If you look at the crash photos two things stand out. One the jet impacted the ground straight and level, the rear of the fuselage was sitting up right mostly intact. And the turkey feathers fro the number one engine were full open, while number two was in the accelerated position indicating max thrust.

 

http://abcnews.go.co...61#.T4Cxwe3DIas

More photos of the scene.

 

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-pilots-from-yesterdays-f-18-crash-saved-tons-of-lives-before-they-ejected-to-safety-2012-4

 

:o

Like a lot of places, back in the day NAS Oceana was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. Now it's built up all around (heck, even Pungo is built up. It used to be one of those places :"you can't get there from here"). Though I think where they crashed is probably not that new (right outside the actual Virginia Beach).

 

scott s.

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