Jet crashes into building, 9 injured

A US Navy F/ A- 18D fighter crashed soon after take- off into an apartment complex in Virginia on Friday, sending fireballs into the sky, heavily damaging half- adozen buildings and injuring nine people.

All the injuries, including those to the F/ A- 18 crew, were minor, officials said, but the search of the Mayfair Mews apartment complex was not complete. Both crew members ejected from the aircraft before it crashed into the buildings in Virginia Beach, and one pilot was rescued while still strapped into his ejection seat.

Initial indications were the F/ A- 18D “suffered a catastrophic mechanical malfunction” during a training flight, Navy Captain Mark Weisgerber said.

Thick black clouds of smoke billowed into the air as fire reduced the apartment buildings to a blackened shell. The Mayfair Mews complex was less than two miles from Naval Air Station Oceana, where the F- 18D was based.

“I feel very blessed that we didn’t find anyone ( dead) in the first two buildings,” said Mayor William Sessoms on CNN. “I don’t know what to expect in the other buildings until they get into them.”

A volunteer rescuer, Pat Kavanaugh, told CNN he found one of the pilots in the wreckage, still strapped to his ejection seat with a parachute. Kavanaugh and neighbours picked up the seat and carried the pilot away from the flames. Mr Kavanaugh said the pilot “apologised very much for hitting our complex.”

Zack Zapatero, who wit- nessed the crash, told CNN there were “just large fireballs coming up” into the sky from the crash.

Amy Miller said she saw “flames underneath the right wing” just before the crash. “I heard the initial impact. Then you heard a boom right after that.”

The distinctive, twinfinned tail section of the F/ A- 18D landed in the courtyard of the complex of two- story brick buildings.

Dozens of firefighters and emergency workers converged on the scene, smothering the apartment complex with foam. — Reuters