F-18 just crashed a mile from my house!

[aznshrek88]

Some ppl got Donnie Darko'ed =(

[Seminole]

Shit man that is crazy. Sad that people lost their life.

I actually saw a plane crash right in front of me a while back. I'm driving down Tennessee St. towards the Ocala intersection and I see this orange and white Cessna fall out of the sky in front of me and nail a powerline and hit the ground nose first. The thing knocked out power to half of Tallahassee.

Here is the story: http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/15480551.html#






I swear it was the biggest thing to happen in Tallahassee for as long as I can remember.

[flyer333]

wow dats crazy

[BoostedBMW]

Wow, that is unreal. Its sad to hear that people lost their lives from a plane crash that they weren't even on. At least the pilot is ok though.

[Enjoiyourlife]

i was on my way back to my office from lunch and i actually saw the plane taking a dive and the pilot eject.

[b335i]

Originally Posted by cryptkeeper

How about we cut the shit on which pilots are more skilled. Until you've been through 2+ years of flight training to become one of the few elite pilots that the US government allows to fly aircraft from it's fighter inventory, STFU. You won't hear shit about who's better over in Iraq/Afghanistan when ground forces are in need in air support. You'll hear only a coordinated effort from the greatest pilots on this earth to protect those that protect us. Flying is dangerous. Military flight is even more dangerous. I'm sorry that these people had to die and I am pretty sure the pilot would have driven himself into the ground had he known the consequences of his ejection. They all fly to save American lives, not take them.

+1

Reports said the first thing he was concerned about was the compromised safety of the citizens due to the accident.

[richeerich03]

the jet that crashed is from VMFAT-101, which is a Marine Training Squadron. Back in 2000 to 2003, I was a Navy F/A-18 jet engine mechanic for a squadron out in Lemoore, VFA-125. 125 and 101 are sister training squadrons for the west coast. The pilots that go there are fresh out of flight school. Here they learn how to fly the hornet on land and on carrier. So you could imagine that these birds are pretty beat-up. In my 3 years there, I have seen just about everything go wrong with these birds: hard-landings, hot brakes, fodded out engines from birds, fuel, oil, blah blah blah.

about every month or 2, all of the training squadrons on the west coast would go on these 5 day deployments out of San Diego. the pilots in training would get there flight deck qualifications which included numerous take offs and landings.. these 5 days are dreadful. I'm talking about over 18 hours of flying. Once one pilot is done, here comes another to jump in the seat. So the crew is pressured all day to keep these aircraft up.. At the end of the deployment, there is a mad rush to get all the broke aircraft fixed and off the ship before we pull back to San Diego..

I think this bird was coming home from one of those deployments.. I would not be surprised if this bird went down because of an existing problems it had from the boat. there have been many times where I have seen questionable down aircraft get signed off as an up bird just so it can fly back to san diego, get fixed, then fly back to Lemoore.. Scary but true..

[Couch]

Originally Posted by b335i

+1

Reports said the first thing he was concerned about was the compromised safety of the citizens due to the accident.

I believe that's part of their training, if not pilot instinct.

[Seminole]

Originally Posted by Couch

I believe that's part of their training, if not pilot instinct.

+1 Its something all pilots have. My mom is an ex-flight attendant and on 9/11 when the first plane hit the WTC she told me right away something was wrong because no pilot in their right mind would have crashed into the building. She said if they had a mechanical problem and were going down he would have aimed for the river to minimize casualties.

[b335i]

Originally Posted by Couch

I believe that's part of their training, if not pilot instinct.

Yes, it is. I was just stating a fact for the uninformed!

[SDTopless]

Originally Posted by chuck92103

San Diego is not that big.

The plane crashed a mile from everyone's house.

The county is approximately the size of the state of Connecticut.

The County stretches 65 miles from north to south, and 86 miles from east to west, covering 4,261 square miles.

According to the U.S. Census 2000, San Diego is the third largest county (based on population) in the state.

The City of San Diego has the 7th largest population of all cities in the U.S.

Just being anal . A drive to Irvine equates the size of driving from 1 end of SD to the other.

[TSM330i]

I work with someone who's brother-in-law flies out of that base and knew of the pilot (but didn't know him personally).

It was a "trainer" F/18 that is not used in combat missions. She talked to her brother-in-law and he said there are issues all the time with these planes. There are constantly warning lights going off and problems with these planes. The crash site is about 1 block from where they used to live (an apartment building).

[skierman64]

Originally Posted by limited_slip

Damn the military. always killing innocent people and stuff.

i guess this is just "collateral damages."

Wow...now there's an uninformed statement. Are you from Marin County?

Originally Posted by richeerich03

these 5 days are dreadful. I'm talking about over 18 hours of flying. Once one pilot is done, here comes another to jump in the seat.

I don't know the Navy rules, but in the Air Force single seat fighter can't fly 18 hour training days. The limit is a 12 hour work day from show time to landing. I doubt the Navy allows 18 hour days either.

[E90ice]

Originally Posted by limited_slip

Damn the military. always killing innocent people and stuff.

i guess this is just "collateral damages."

[The_Blob]

It wasn't mechanical problems, but it was due to pilot stupidity. Pilot error!!!!!!

Have you seen the realiyy show called American Fighter Pilots that used to on C.B.S.?
Flying one of these beast ain't easy and it's funny as one of the pilots almost crashed his F-15 Strike Eagles was filming the show.

[solefald]

Originally Posted by The_Blob

It wasn't mechanical problems, but it was due to pilot stupidity. Pilot error!!!!!!

Have you seen the realiyy show called American Fighter Pilots that used to on C.B.S.?
Flying one of these beast ain't easy and it's funny as one of the pilots almost crashed his F-15 Strike Eagles was filming the show.

i just read in LA Times that it was an electrical failure according to some official sources. The article also said that there was a structural failure in one of the Hornets, that grounded the entire fleet back in October.

[skierman64]

Originally Posted by solefald

i just read in LA Times that it was an electrical failure according to some official sources. The article also said that there was a structural failure in one of the Hornets, that grounded the entire fleet back in October.

The jets that were found structurally deficient in October are either still grounded or they were fixed before they were flown again. Most likely not a factor in this accident.

[skierman64]

Here's a good graffic from the San Diego newspaper.

[nusevad]

very sad. RIP...

[MBE93]

Originally Posted by Seminole

Shit man that is crazy. Sad that people lost their life.

I actually saw a plane crash right in front of me a while back. I'm driving down Tennessee St. towards the Ocala intersection and I see this orange and white Cessna fall out of the sky in front of me and nail a powerline and hit the ground nose first. The thing knocked out power to half of Tallahassee.

Here is the story: http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/15480551.html#






I swear it was the biggest thing to happen in Tallahassee for as long as I can remember.

Wow, is that the pilot's body coming through the wing? Sad deal. I use to be a Navy jet engine mechanic also, though I worked on helo's. Was stationed at North Island (Coronado). One of my collateral duties was on the reclamation team, scavaging parts off of downed choppers...creepy stuff to think about what had happened in them.

[The_Blob]

Considering it was a training run, no doubt about it, it was the pilot error that caused the crashed. It seems like someone wants to hide the embarassing facts.

[TK-421]

Originally Posted by limited_slip

Damn the military. always killing innocent people and stuff.

i guess this is just "collateral damages."

I'm going to be blunt...

Go kill yourself.