F-16 pilot ejects before jet crashes into California building

By Dan Whitcomb

 

 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An F-16 fighter jet being flown in routine training exercises crashed into a warehouse just outside March Air Reserve Base in Southern California on Thursday, the pilot ejected and five people on the ground were reported injured, military officials said.

 

The extent of the injuries was unclear and the pilot was reportedly "transported to a local hospital for evaluation," officials with the United States Air Force Reserve said in a release late Thursday.

 

Earlier it was stated by officials that there were no reported injuries.

 

The fighter jet was assigned to the 114th Fighter Wing, Souix Falls, South Dakota and was conducting a training mission for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), officials said.

 

The Los Angeles Times, citing a base fire official, reported that the crash ignited a small fire, and a photo of the accident scene posted on local television station KCAL-TV showed a gaping hole in the roof of a large gray building.

 

The warplane went down at about 3:30 p.m. Pacific Time and slammed into a warehouse at the end of the base runway, base spokesman Major Perry Covington told Reuters by telephone.

 

"The pilot did eject and the pilot is OK," he said, adding he did not believe anyone was inside the warehouse when the crash occurred.

 

The sprawling installation, located in Riverside County, California, about 65 miles (105 km) east of Los Angeles, is home to the Air Force Reserve 452nd Air Mobility Wing. There are normally between 2,000 and 6,000 Air Force reservists and other personnel on base at any given time, Covington said.

 

A section of Interstate 215, a major north-south route running through the base, was closed in both directions after the crash, according to the California Highway Patrol. The CHP urged motorists to avoid the area.

 

NORAD operations are designed to protect the air space of both the U.S. and Canada and draws forces from both countries.

 

Officials said that the cause of the crash is under investigation.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-05-18

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Lucky no one was killed very lucky indeed

No big fire? no fuel???

Great video from inside the building (it was occupied, they always lie) on reddit. Where else! Plane almost unscathed compared to most wreckage, must have been very low and slow.

4 hours ago, Small Joke said:

Great video from inside the building (it was occupied, they always lie) on reddit. Where else! Plane almost unscathed compared to most wreckage, must have been very low and slow.

Reads like the pilot stayed with it as long as possible and maybe did some maneuver near end to slow it.

 

 

19 hours ago, Basil B said:

No big fire? no fuel???

Yes, very surprising that there is so few damage !??

How did this kind of plane managed to fall with such a low speed, mainly horizontal speed?

3 hours ago, Pattaya46 said:

Yes, very surprising that there is so few damage !??

How did this kind of plane managed to fall with such a low speed, mainly horizontal speed?

Probably when it flamed out I would have thought the pilot would have selected the best angle of decent to maintain a glide for the longest time distance which I read as 6:1 for the F16 that is about a 20 degree (AoA) decent. 

Maybe when the pilot ejects the controls are locked, looking at those photos I would say the plane crashed at something like 20 degrees.

Maybe it's me, but it doesn't look like there was a massive fuel explosion. Maybe it was out of fuel? Basil B beat me to this hypothesis, above.

Edited May 19, 20197 yr by MaxYakov