F-18 Down in Va. Beach..

[David@vwvortex]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...g.html?hpid=z2

Both pilots got out and it missed the apt. buildings there. So far no injuries reported.

Phew....

[dubfan]

Don't think it missed the apts... Some nasty pics circulating on the web.

[dblueS40]

Good to see that everyone escaped any fatalities. It will be interesting to see what the report says happened that caused them to lose control and have to eject. I will actually be spending some time about an hour or so from there up in Fort Eustis towards the end of this year.

[Tornado2dr]

Don't think it missed the apts... Some nasty pics circulating on the web.

Yeah, tagged them pretty good. So far local reports here say no fatalities. I hope everyone was at work or school. Loosing your home might suck,but the alternative...

A good friend of mine runs routine training for hornet pilots on the sims at Oceana(ex hornetdrvr himself), so he basically sees most pilots that are coming and going from carrier groups. i've been wanting to give him a call for any inside info but i'm sure he has gotten tired of that today from other fools like me.

[dubraycer36]

Birdstrike/ingestion maybe?

[20grit_timber]

Birdstrike/ingestion maybe?

Engine failure.....I know there are two so it will be interesting to see the accident report.

[Steveo989]

Yeah I am interested in that report as well. There must have been something extremely bad for the pilot to put it down in a populated area. As a previous controller at Oceana(2006-2010), I can tell you maybe a handful of times that there were engine failure-related emergencies(at least when the pilot actually felt like declaring), bash conditions can suck there, but usually we do a pretty decent job of getting ground-vehicles to help disperse large flocks that are hanging out on the active runways. In the air is another story, but since the crash happened shortly after take-off I doubt bash conditions had much to do with it.

It was also a VFA-106 pilot, which happens to be a training squadron, there's two sides to 106 so perhaps it wasn't the training squadron, but I don't know too much about 106 other than the pilots sometimes do not follow control instructions well because of their noob status. I would assume something catastrophic happened, but I believe it was engine related, since a witness said the jet was pitched high and ditching fuel while flying at a low altitude. I'm guessing they knew they were going down immediately after departing the runway.
Thankfully, no one was hurt or killed from the crash, which is pretty much a miracle since it struck an apartment builidn, if I read the report correctly.

[Gern_Blanston]

Do F-18s really have the capability to dump fuel?

[Tornado2dr]

Do F-18s really have the capability to dump fuel?

I'll reply the same as I did in the OT thread on this.

My neighbor is a sim instructor who actually had this student in sim the day before the incident. He is an ex f18 pilot himself, and trains people on it, so I think he probably has a good handle on what the plan can do.

His assessment was that yes, the f18 can dump fuel, but only at 1300 lbs per minute, and they take off loaded with 10,000lbs. So, even if they did reach (he said down and a ways away from the controls) they wouldn't have been able to do much, it any, good.
He said that the pic of the tail section is more telling. One engines nozzle was opened to what he called mil-power for takeoff/flight the other was wide open indicating either afterburner or shutdown. He thinks an engine failure or shut down caused it to dump whatever fuel they are finding, and that the crew had too much airplane in their hands to actually "dump" fuel on purpose, not that it would have helped much in their short flight, anyways.

[SMP679]

I live 2 miles from where it went down and have friends who lived in the same complex. There's conflicting reports as there will always be. From my military friends who are stationed at Oceana they were training. The clouds caused them to fly a little lower that day(not that, that makes a difference). It's crazy how it hit 4 building and not one person was killed.

Here's a thread on one of our local car forums. A few crazy pics/videos.
http://www.vadriven.com/forums/757-14/jet-crash-437067/

[joness0154]

Update:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/02/us/vir...html?hpt=hp_t2

A Navy F-18 fighter jet that crashed into a Virginia Beach neighborhood in April experienced dual engine failure, marking the first time an F-18 has had two unrelated catastrophic engine failures at the same time, according to a report released on the investigation.

In the first five seconds of flight, the jet's right engine stalled from a fuel leak, the investigators said. The pilot tried to compensate with extra thrust from the left engine but it also failed due to an unrelated problem with the afterburner.

[Elbows]

Damn...talk about unlucky.

[Tornado2dr]

Damn...talk about unlucky.

You could take the "un" out of that and still be correct.

My neighbor ran some sims at Oceana for some of the pilots that were on the investigation (from what I understand, the Navy will select several pilots as a part of the investigation team after an incident).

Basically, he said, they threw what they knew about the flameouts/failures into the simulator...and every pilot that tried it stuffed the plane - no recovery possible. Still wild that it resulted in 0 fatalities.

[ATL_Av8r]

Hope that pilot doesn't play the lottery because he'll never hit those kind of odds ever again.

[ShadowRabbit6]

It was also a VFA-106 pilot, which happens to be a training squadron, there's two sides to 106 so perhaps it wasn't the training squadron, but I don't know too much about 106 other than the pilots sometimes do not follow control instructions well because of their noob status.

Just to clear things up...there are two sides of VFA-106; A-D Legacy Hornet side and E-F Super Hornet side.....both side train Fleet Replacement pilots. And you're right, you don't know much about 106......their student pilots (and all Navy aviators) are professionals and their status as less experienced pilots in no way means that they aren't following approved NATOPS procedure. Just because they may not have stopped at the hold short line for you before in no way gives you the right to call them noobs.

[joness0154]

Just to clear things up...there are two sides of VFA-106; A-D Legacy Hornet side and E-F Super Hornet side.....both side train Fleet Replacement pilots. And you're right, you don't know much about 106......their student pilots (and all Navy aviators) are professionals and their status as less experienced pilots in no way means that they aren't following approved NATOPS procedure. Just because they may not have stopped at the hold short line for you before in no way gives you the right to call them noobs.

You sound related to the chick that came in here complaining that her SO was not getting credit for "his" paintjob! Relax. People on the interwebs take things too seriously.

Student pilots are noobs

[yz1337]

You sound related to the chick that came in here complaining that her SO was not getting credit for "his" paintjob! Relax. People on the interwebs take things too seriously.

Student pilots are noobs

ehh...he's got a point. By the time they're flying hornets they are pretty damn proficient aviators. I have a hard time believing they don't follow instructions from ATC...except when ATC gives em a dumbass direction. There are NO noobs flying hornets.



I did laugh my ass off at the chick bitching about the paint job. Suck it up buttercup, its the military and he was doing his damn job, nothing more.

[Zombiee313]

Student pilots are noobs

soooooo true.....

people really do take things too seriously

[ShadowRabbit6]

people really do take things too seriously

Damn right I take it seriously. I've spent the last five years in Naval Aviation (away from my wife for more than three of those years) making sure that pilots come back alive and troops on the ground have the air support they need, so I think I've earned that right.

[Zombiee313]

Damn right I take it seriously. I've spent the last five years in Naval Aviation (away from my wife for more than three of those years) making sure that pilots come back alive and troops on the ground have the air support they need, so I think I've earned that right.

I worked in the Air Force as a crew chief on A-10's.... so I worked in military aviation also....

... do you hear that? it is the smallest fiddle in the world playing for you

Seriously dude... take a chill pill.... I worked in the 354th FS enabling pilots to train for war... and in the 357th FS dealing with student pilots who were just starting to fly A-10's.... there were noob pilots in both squadrons lol

if you think there is no such thing as a noob pilot then... you are fairly delusional imho