[jern]

glad you moved this from breaking news, guess it wasn't a big deal </sarcasm>

[Constitution Day]

BTTT

[mykdsmom]

TV is saying that an F-18 is down.

MKM

[mykdsmom]

NC Ping!!!!

[oceanview]

on MSNBC now.

[joebellis]

Events along I -95 keep moving south. Look out Florida.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A plane has crashed in the vicinity of Raleigh-Durham International Airport, catching on fire and sending a huge plume of smoke into the air visible from several miles away.

At least one witness described it as a military jet, possibly an F-18 from the Navy, and the pilot reportedly has ejected.

Check back with WRAL.com and watch Friday's WRAL News for more on this developing story
Copyright 2004 by WRAL.com.

[lilylangtree]

Hope no one was hurt.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A military jet has crashed at Raleigh-Durham International Airport near Terminal A, Federal Aviation Administration officials tell NBC 17.

 

The DOT camera at Airport Blvd.
shows smoke rising near the airport.

 

There is no word on the condition of the pilot. RDU officials are expected to hold a press conference within the next 30 minutes.

 

NBC 17's Tina Tenret reports that firefighters are on the scene and attempting to extinguish flames near Terminal A. Plumes of smoke can be seen coming from the airport from several miles away.

 

The FAA says all inbound and outbound flights from Terminal A have been put on hold, but flights in and out of Terminal C are still underway.

 

Traffic on Highway 70 and Interstate 40 is being diverted by Wake County sheriff's deputies.

 

NBC 17 has a crew on the way to the airport. Check back for more details on this developing story.

 NBC17.com

[Oldeconomybuyer]

A military plane has crashed at Raleigh Durham International Airport, catching on fire and sending a huge plume of smoke into the air visible from several miles away.

 

 

[Constitution Day]

Larger photo:

[Rogle]

The news keeps saying that the pilot ejected. Is not the F-18 a two seater?

[machman]

I'm supposed to fly in to RDU tommorrow, yikes.

I hope the pilot is OK.

[looscnnn]

This is the second plane to go down in two days. Wasn't the one off SC a F-18? What is up with that?

[OpusatFR]

They have a remarkable record of safety.

Or I wouldn't be comfortable watching them pass over my house on touch and go's every minute or so.

Go Navy!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

From Navy Times:

F/A-18 crashes at takeoff in N.C.; pilot ejects

March 26, 2004

By Steve Hartsoe
Associated Press

MORRISVILLE, N.C. — A military pilot ejected from his F-18 just before it crashed in flames Friday during a failed takeoff from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Airport spokeswoman Teresa Damiano said the F-18 Hornet crashed on the east side of the airport around 3 p.m. The pilot, who was the only person on board, ejected before the crash, Damiano said, adding that no one on the ground was injured.

The condition of the pilot was not immediately known, but an eyewitness said he saw the pilot walking around after ejecting from the plane.

It was not immediately clear where the aircraft was based. Military public affairs officials at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach, Va., where F-18s are based, said they were still gathering details on the incident.

Film taken after the crash showed the plane engulfed in flames just off a runway at the airport, which is in Morrisville, between Raleigh and Durham. Thick black smoke poured from the aircraft.

Damiano later said the fire was under control and that there had been no damage to any airport facilities.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

Damiano said the airspace around the airport was closed temporarily after the incident, but that by 4 p.m. the Federal Aviation Administration was allowing some aicraft to arrive and depart on a limited basis. Damiano told passengers using the airport to expect delays.

She said military planes regularly take off and land from the airport.

Eyewitnesses said they saw the pilot eject just before the crash.

Frank Belote was watching from a passenger plane that was waiting to taxi as a pair of F-18s took off.

After the first one took off, “the front of the (second) plane blew up and the pilot immediately ejected,” Belote told News 14 Carolina.

He said the pilot laid on the ground without moving for quite a while, but another witness said he saw the pilot get up and walk around before an ambulance arrived at the scene.

Andy Palahnuck said the plane never got off the ground before it crashed just off the runway.

[Mat_Helm]

Most likely he lost an engine with a catasrophic uncontained failure on the takeoff roll just before rotation which caused excessive yaw with not enough airspeed for the control surfaces to be effective. No other reason for such an early fire undetected. He would have tested the engine fire lights before taxing and if he had time to abort the takeoff he would have depressed the fire lights which shut down the fuel flow to the engines. The fact that he could not maintain stability on the ground and chose to emergency eject could have meant he was aware of the fire and engine failure or that he lost one of the main gear in the process and had no control for stopping or stearing and chose to eject.

The low altitude ejection sequence would have pulled his legs in from the seat restraints and wouild have fired the canopy first. The catapult would have than fired and propelled the seat up the guide rail. He probaly pulled both engine throttles back to the off position lifting on the finger lifts before pulling the seat ejection control handle. If the canopy failed to blow first a head nocker on the seat would have broken through the canopy on ejction. At low altitude the drogue gun fires to pull the drogue shoot out and decelerate the seat and more quickly deploy the main shoot and pull the pilot from the seat without him having to pull the seat release lever.

As the jet still had the wings and vertical stabilizers in place I doubt the plane cartwheeled and propbably stayed level. It appears that the nose gear remained up while one or both of the main gear have failed or are no longer part of the airframe. Another posibility is the main gear collapsed or retracted early once the jet was close to wait off wheels and the gear handle was in the up position or one of the main gear failed and caused a skid but this would not have caused such an early fire as reported. The one witness saying the front of the aircraft exploded was describing the ejection sequence itself most likely.

Sempre Fi

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

From Navy Newsstand:

Hornet Pilot Unhurt Following Crash

Story Number: NNS040326-16
Release Date: 3/26/2004 10:40:00 PM

From Commander, U.S. Naval Air Force, Atlantic Fleet

NORFOLK, Va. (NNS) -- The pilot of a Navy F/A-18 Hornet aircraft, which crashed the afternoon of March 26 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, is uninjured. He has been identified as Lt. j.g. Wesley Baumgartner of Yorktown, Va.

Baumgartner was the pilot of the aircraft, assigned to the “Valions” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 15 based at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia. He was part of a two-aircraft flight on a routine cross-country training mission when they made a stop at Raleigh-Durham to refuel. Raleigh-Durham International Airport is a joint-use facility that also serves as a base for local Air National Guard units. The other aircraft landed safely.

Baumgartner was taken to Wake Medical Center for examination.

The accident is under investigation.

For more news from around the fleet, visit the Navy NewsStand at www.news.navy.mil.
U.S. Navy File Photo.

040225-N-9907G-001 Atlantic Ocean (Feb. 25, 2004) – An F/A-18C Hornet assigned to the “Valions” of Strike Fighter Squadron One Five (VFA-15) makes its final approach before landing aboard USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). The nuclear powered aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman is undergoing carrier qualifications and flight deck certification off the Atlantic coast. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd class Floyd Grimm. (RELEASED)