Clovis native recounts jet crash

Myra Dingman, a 1992 Clovis High School graduate who lives in Virginia Beach, Va., was working from home Friday when a Navy jet crashed into an apartment building just three miles away.

"I didn't hear it (crash). A friend texted me, and right away I went online to see what happened," said Dingman, who moved to Virginia Beach 12 years ago to attend Regent University, where she earned her doctorate in organizational leadership. "We have an outdoor pool with a really high deck. We stood on it and we could see the black smoke."

The two-seat F18 Hornet malfunctioned just after takeoff and hurtled into an apartment complex in a spectacular crash that sent flames and black smoke billowing from the rubble.

Dingman said she is familiar with the apartment complex that got hit and has a friend that just moved out of it.

"The runway goes right through the middle of the city," Dingman said. "We've never had anything like this here."

Naval Air Station Oceana, where the F/A-18D that crashed was assigned, is located in Virginia Beach.

The two pilots managed to eject just before impact, suffering minor injuries along with five others on the ground. Several residents described hearing a loud explosion and looking out their windows to see the red and orange blaze. In the confusion that followed, two men helped one of the bloodied pilots from the two-seat F18 Hornet move to safety.

"Oh, my God, I heard three really loud explosions, then the black smoke went up high in the sky," said 71-year-old Felissa Ezell, who lives in a townhouse near the crash site.

By evening, emergency crews were searching through the charred remains of the complex, where some 40 apartment units were damaged or destroyed. No fatalities had been reported.

Seven people, including the pilots from nearby Naval Air Station Oceana, were taken to a hospital. All except one of the pilots were released by late afternoon.

Virginia Beach Fire Department Capt. Tim Riley said three residents remained unaccounted for late Friday.

"We don't know if we have working cell numbers, if they've traveled," Riley said. "We don't know if people are staying with other people."

He said crews had done an exhaustive search of about 95 percent of the apartment complex and would continue searching throughout the night.

"We consider ourselves very fortunate," he said.

The plane had dumped loads of fuel before crashing, though it wasn't clear if that was because of a malfunction or an intentional maneuver by the pilots, said Capt. Mark Weisgerber with U.S. Fleet Forces Command. He said investigators will try to determine what happened. The jet went down less than 10 miles from Oceana.

Bruce Nedelka, the Virginia Beach EMS division chief, said witnesses saw fuel being dumped from the jet before it went down, and that fuel was found on buildings and vehicles in the area.

The plane not having as much fuel on board "mitigated what could have been an absolute massive, massive fireball and fire," Nedelka said. "With all of that jet fuel dumped, it was much less than what it could have been."

The crash happened in the Hampton Roads area, which has a large concentration of military bases, including Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval base in the world. Naval Air Station Oceana, where the F/A-18D that crashed was assigned, is located in Virginia Beach. Both the pilots were from Virginia Beach, Weisgerber said.

The pilots included a student and an instructor. Weisgerber said he did not know how many times the student pilot had been in the air, but that the instructor was "extremely experienced."

Dozens of police cars, fire trucks and other emergency vehicles filled the densely populated neighborhood where the plane crashed. Yellow fire hoses snaked through side streets as fire crews poured water on the charred rooftops of brick apartment houses. By late afternoon, the fire had been put out.

Residents of the apartment complex described a confusing scene and an apologetic pilot.

Colby Smith said his house started shaking and then the power went out, as he saw a red and orange blaze outside his window. He ran outside, where he saw billowing black smoke and then came upon the pilot as he ran to a friend's home.

"I saw the parachute on the house and he was still connected to it, and he was laying on the ground with his face full of blood," Smith told WVEC-TV.

"The pilot said, 'I'm sorry for destroying your house."'

The Associated Press contributed to this story

CMI Staff Writer Tonjia Rolan and The Associated Press contributed to this story