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Navy F18 crashes into Va. Beach apt complex; crew ejected and OK
The Navy confirms to WAVY.com that an F/A-18D jet has crashed in Virginia Beach Friday afternoon. Grazia Moyers, spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Police Department, told WAVY.com just before 12:30 p.m. what police believe is a military aircraft went down. Cmdr. Phil Rosi with Naval Air Forces Atlantic told WAVY.com the plane was an F/A-18D with Strike Fighter Squadron 106 that crashed just after noon right after takeoff. Rosi added two aircrew safely ejected from the plane that was based at… (www.wavy.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
It breaks my heart when an airplane dies.
Local news reports saying that the pilot reported flames over the wing and a wing separating from the aircraft. Eyewitnesses also are saying the aircraft was at an almost 45-degree angle and three or four popping noises shortly before the crash.
Never, repeat never pay attention to the so called "witness reports", 99.9999% of the times it is folks who have no idea how and why a normal flight looks and sounds like, never mind a plane in distress.
there goes the flying on 1 engine theory
The popping sounds would have been the canopy popping off the jet for one. The other 2 popping sounds would have been each seat leaving the jet before it crashed.
I'm not sure. One eyewitness at a salvage yard right off the end of the runway heard the pops right over his head. The crash site is about 2 miles off the end of the runway.
Also, as for the flame over the wing, its all about the point of view of the person seeing the fire. If I would guess, the plane was banked over to the right and its possible that the flame could have been the right engine in afterburner and the dumping fuel igniting as well. In addition, it almost sounds like they ejected out of the envelope and are lucky to be alive.
If they were going more than 630kias, then they would be out of the envelope. But, i don't think they would be going that fast right after takeoff. Pretty sure they were sitting in a variant of the MK10 MB seat. This would mean they can eject all the way up to 630kias before they are out of the envelope. It is not really luck when you eject just after you take off. The seat is also zero/zero.
I don't think air speed is a problem here. But they can be out of the envelope if the plane is banked over too far. The first female F-14 pilot comes to mind when she punched out too late and died. Here is info on the ejection system on the F-18. http://info.publicintelligence.net/F18-ABCD-000.pdf Page 627
The flames over the wing were reported by the pilot.