http://edition.cnn.com/20...index.html



A military jet crashed into a residential neighborhood in San Diego, California, on Monday as it tried to land at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, an FAA spokesman told CNN.

The pilot ejected before the jet, an F/A-18, went down two miles from the airfield about 11:55 a.m. PT, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

The pilot -- the only occupant of the two-seat jet -- was taken to a hospital after safely ejecting, the Marine Corps said in a news release.

Two homes were destroyed, and officials don't know whether anyone was inside the structures during the crash, said Maurice Luque of the San Diego Fire Department, according to CNN affiliate KGTV.

Gregor said information on whether anyone was injured wasn't immediately available.

Aerial video broadcast by KGTV shortly after the crash showed thick gray smoke billowing from what appeared to be a heavily populated residential area of several houses near Interstate 805.

Firefighters aimed jets of water from high-pressure hoses at the smoldering rubble of what appeared to be at least one house. Smoke continued to rise in clouds from the site nearly an hour after the crash.

The crash happened as the jet was returning to the Miramar field after performing landing training on a Navy aircraft carrier, the Marine Corps said in a news release. The cause of the crash is under investigation, it said.

Authorities cordoned off the area. Residents told reporters they had been informed by police that chemicals were in the air and they should stay away

One resident interviewed by CNN affiliate KFMB said he saw a fighter jet at a very low altitude, and "it just spiraled, right out of 'Top Gun.' "

The movie "Top Gun" was based on the Navy fighter pilot training program at the Miramar facility.

The resident said he saw a flier from the aircraft on the ground after parachuting from the plane. He said the pilot was dazed but able to move on his own.

Bank worker Scott Bloom told KGTV he was on his way to visit clients when he saw someone eject from the plane. He said the plane was silent in the moments before it went down.

"I thought I was dreaming," Bloom told KGTV. "It was so surreal."

The principal of a high school about three blocks from the crash site said students had just finished lunch when staffers heard "two large pops or two large booms." The school and its students were not directly affected by the crash, but the school was put into lock-down mode for students' safety, Principal Mike Price said.

The pilot was in communication with military air traffic controllers before the jet crashed, the FAA said.

OH MY GOD!!

Chico lives in San Diego. Anyone else?

Two people on the gorund death. The pics of the crash site are harrowing.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

he lives north of where it happened.

i think every SD orger is in the clear.

OMG!!

San Diego here...just about 10 miles away...

sad!

(CNN) --
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said it was believed that four people -- "possibly a grandmother, a mother and two children" -- were in the destroyed house where firefighters found two bodies.

The other two people believed to be in that house were missing, and firefighters were searching through the rubble, Sanders said.

The other house hit by the plane apparently was unoccupied at the time, he said.

The jet crashed into an area of about 20 homes, Sanders said, but only those two houses burned.
[Edited 12/8/08 16:06pm]

Its California... we're doomed.

It happened a mile from where I was 2day. Oddly, I heard nothing. Lotsa smoke tho.

ehuffnsd said:

Oh shit! Are you in San Diego too, for some reason I thought you were in Long Beach or something.