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Armed F16 Down In CA

Happening now, at March AFB in SoCal...

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- An F-16 plane has crashed at the end of a runway at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County.

The pilot of the plane, who was the only occupant, was ejected and is believed to be OK.

Yikes! Hope everyone's okay!

Hopefully no one in the building was hurt or killed. Jets are replaceable, folks ain't.

I saw an AV8 Harrier crash in Yuma, AZ. I was on the flight line and watched it nose dive and exoplode on impact.

It crashed in a residential area and had a full gun pack and a few 500 lb bombs on it. Pilot safely ejected and amazingly no one was hurt.

More...

There was a crash in San Diego several years back where it's thought that instead of ejecting out of his plane in a suburban area, the pilot guided the disabled plane into the hill between homes to avoid on-the-ground casualties.

The mysterious double post...

Saw a couple of plane crashes while working in Viet Nam. A couple of hueys and a O-1 an OV-10 and a C-7 that should have, but for the skill of the pilot. Terry

My father was a contractor and was building a house near where we lived. I had set some coon traps across the road and was walking to my traps with a friend. We were watching the contrail of a jet, way, way up in the sky. It was going around in circles and the contrail stopped. Then we say a large stream of something white come out of the plane that was different. The sound of the plane stopped and it continued down. Then we saw a parachute that looked like it was tiny. The plane kept making tight circles and if came down.

The house my dad was building was almost complete and an electrician was on the front step, on a ladder putting up a light. The jet turned just enough that the wing just barely missed the roof of the house and crashed in the dirt that was dug out of the cellar.

We watched the parachute go off in the distance. My dad and the electrician ran to the wreck to see if there was anyone inside, they didn't see the pilot eject like my friend and I did. The pilot landed about 10 miles away and was brought back to the crash site by a taxi. The pilot was a test pilot from Virginia and wasn't in the Air Force, he was a test pilot and not in the service.

The pilot said the white streak we saw coming out of the plane was fuel that he dumped before he ejected. The pilot was dressed in kaki pants and shirt. He said an alarm came on as he was putting the jet through its paces and said to eject immediately. He said he ejected and immediately opened the parachute. He said that was a mistake because it would have opened all by its self at 9000 feet. He said he thought he would freeze to death before he got down.

My dad took two rolls of film worth of pictures of the wreck. Then a four engine prop plane few over a scared us to death, we didn't hear it coming until it was right on top of us. We saw something come out of the planed. It was a 35 MM film container with a rag tied on it. Inside was a note that said return pilot to Dover Air force Base.

Then personnel from the air base showed up and put yellow caution tape all around the wreck and said no pictures were to be taken and they put guards around the wreck.

Then I asked the electrician what he was looking for on the front stoop. He said he had screws in his mouth when he hears the swooshing and looked up and saw the plane come over just feet from his head. We never did find the screws.

The aircraft was from the 114th FW based here in Sioux Falls, I do not believe it was one of our pilots however. Glad to hear there were no injuries.

Amazing that there wasn’t a fire and explosion from the armaments it was carrying.

Most of the injured suffered inhalation of dust and debris. I watched two videos. One of it crashing and the other from inside where the jet was lying in the warehouse.

Could have been big time worse than it was...New video’s! Freeway was packed as it floated right over it before going into the warehouse...

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