[diogenes ghost]

It appears to have gone down aprox. 2 miles short of Rwy 23L, which at 12,000’ is Oceana’s longest.

[martin_fierro]

George Pilkington, an eye witness to the crash, said he was the plane flying low, with its nose up and tail down, ejecting fuel -- which struck him as unusual.

What ever happened to editors?

[RegulatorCountry]

I’m sitting here in the customer lounge having my car serviced, watching it. One pilot is hospitalized. Five apartment buildings on fire, injuries and fatalities on the ground are unclear, several dazed survivors came stumbling out of the smoke according to witnesses.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

I recall a tragedy here in Sacramento. A B-52 crashed near Mather AFB. An Internet source identified the plane as "B-52G [at] Mather, 23 Dec 1982." I recall that the B-52G and the B-52H were from Castle AFB doing what I've always heard described as "touch and go" but actually it was two B-52s doing MITO.

How it happened is described by a USAF member familiar with the training exercises taking place at the time. Also from the Internet.

"This was a MITO (Minimum Interval Take-Off) with a B-52H in front, and a B-52G in the rear.

"SAC TAC Doctrine required 9 second spacing between similar aircraft, but 30 second spacing between dissimilar aircraft.

"Unfortunately, the planners thought that B-52G's and H's were similar aircraft--They are not.

"For about 90 seconds during take-off, the B-52G's water injected engines are more powerful than the otherwise perkier B-52H engines.

"The pilot of the trailing B-52G pulled back power to avoid collision with the B-52H...Several engines flamed-out, and the G-model crashed in a field. Only the EW ejected, but the hapless fellow's chute took him through the fireball. Needless to say, nobody survived."

It was reported that the pilot avoided hitting any structures on the ground.

Yet more reminders that even without actual combat there are hourly heroics and sacrifices made by our military.

[wolficatZ]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2126223/Virginia-beach-plane-crash-F-18-hits-apartment-building.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

Freep the comments at Daily Mail!

CNN sucks.

[Shamrock498]

A co-worker friend of mine just relayed a story to me....his step-father was a navy pilot that flew an A4. He told my friend (his step-son)about a time when he had a flame out and took his jet out over the Pacific and ejected. He was pissed that he had to swim:). But he said they were told specifically if over houses to either ride it into the ground or get it over the water and eject but under no circumstances were they to eject over houses where they would live and innocents would die.

I wonder if that’s still how they are supposed to think. I would hate to think i killed someone and walked away personally but at the same time riding a jet into the ground when there is no control left seems silly too. Does anybody know anything about this stuff?

[Vroomfondel]

ping

[GIANTSBEATPATS]

Tail down nose up

Classic stall configuration

[ArmstedFragg]

Updraft from that hot air Dick Durbin’s spewing today.

[TangoLimaSierra]

My son is stationed there. Had a few anxious moments till he texted me back.

[New Jersey Realist]

What the F are all of you talking about editors? This is a tragegy and half of you morons are talking about editors. I don’t understand. Please explain.

[diogenes ghost]

Fox News reporting the aircraft was an F-18 Delta Super Hornet.Well, if it was, it wasn't. Cannot be both.

F-18D's are Hornets. Super Hornets are E/F/G models, considerably newer and larger than Hornets.

Also, the location of both pilots indicates a very low ejection, probably stuck around until they ran out of altitude, control, or ideas...probably all three.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Not a whole lot of time to think.

(http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/12/2010/08/500x_canadian_air_show_ejection.jpg)