F18 Crash in Virginia Beach

F-18 hornet crashes near Virginia Beach - WTVM.com-Columbus, GA News Weather & Sports

I hope for the best.

Holy crap!

Found this pic

Report is the pilots bailed out. Two chutes where seen.

Many houses hit, casualties expected.

April 6th, 2012.

Given that Hornets have two engines, this one probably was very bad for the pilots to bail out over land! As they said back in 1903, "it will never catch on!".....

I could see the smoke from downtown Norfolk. No deaths, yet. Nothing short of a miracle.

Still no deaths reported.

Said it was a training mission and it had a fuel leak on take-off. They shut down one engine and the other one took a lunch.

They just interviewed one of the people who got to the pilot after he landed. Pretty sad to hear but the upside is that he is alive as well as the other pilot.

I had a Lawyer working for me on a case several years ago that was a ex-navy pilot. He took the company jet to Augusta Ga on business and the airport had screwed up and not fueled the plane. He ran out over a populated area that included a school. Witnesses said he flew it in down a street and avoided the school and hit an apartment building which was the most likely less populated building around. His last transmission was" I am going in, Pray for me". Witnesses said they could see him at the controls fighting to fly the plane till the very end. His name was Rick Parks and he was my friend. If I remember right no one on the ground was killed but a couple people were burned badly. Would have been a different story had he hit the school.

The latest from Yahoo:

"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 had been released from the hospital.
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."

There was an old man being interviewed on TV. He said he was real close when it happened and that he saw the crew eject. He also said when they ejected, the neigboring buildings were higher than the jet was. They couldn't have been in the plane any longer than what they had.

My girlfriend and I were heading towards the beach and saw the smoke. Saw his wingman orbiting overhead and suspected that an aircraft had crashed, then I remembered I have some Sailors that live near there.....
Glad all are alive.

I'm relieved to hear that there don't appear to have been any fatalities. I have no doubt that the pilots did everything in their power to choose the best available crash site, and only punched out when there was nothing else that they could do to control the plane's point of impact. The reports of both engines being out and the plane being below the tops of the nearby buildings when they ejected supports that. I hope for speedy recoveries for everybody who was injured.