No fatalities from F-18 crash
- 12 years ago
A top Naval officer says he's amazed that no one was killed after an F-18 fighter jet crashed into an apartment complex in Virginia Beach.
Navy Admiral John Harvey.
SOUNDBITE: Navy Admiral John Harvey saying:
"I knew the aircraft had just taken off to start a mission so it had a full, full capacity for fuel, it was loaded up heavily with fuel, so, I must admit, I suspected, I felt the worst was yet to come on this. I don't speak for anybody's religious beliefs but the mayor and I both agree that if you wanted to find a miracle, what happened here yesterday, meets that definition for me."
The crash injured seven people in all, including both crew members, and damaged six buildings. Officials say everyone has now been discharged from hospital.
Harvey says it could be several weeks before the Navy knows exactly what led to the crash.
SOUNDBITE: Navy Admiral John Harvey saying:
"The investigation has just gotten underway. And, so what we've done here, is control the site. We are now going to start moving in. Now that the city has gotten the whole site under complete control, we are going to come in, sort of in a parallel activity and work our way from the outside in, gathering all the parts, examining the parts. We will take all those parts... lay them all out and start doing the detailed examination of what we find, looking at all the tapes, listening to all the tapes, we will get the data recorders from the aircraft. It's going to take weeks to put this all together as you might expect."
Sixty people, the majority of whom are elderly, lost their homes in the crash.
Deborah Gembara, Reuters.
Navy Admiral John Harvey.
SOUNDBITE: Navy Admiral John Harvey saying:
"I knew the aircraft had just taken off to start a mission so it had a full, full capacity for fuel, it was loaded up heavily with fuel, so, I must admit, I suspected, I felt the worst was yet to come on this. I don't speak for anybody's religious beliefs but the mayor and I both agree that if you wanted to find a miracle, what happened here yesterday, meets that definition for me."
The crash injured seven people in all, including both crew members, and damaged six buildings. Officials say everyone has now been discharged from hospital.
Harvey says it could be several weeks before the Navy knows exactly what led to the crash.
SOUNDBITE: Navy Admiral John Harvey saying:
"The investigation has just gotten underway. And, so what we've done here, is control the site. We are now going to start moving in. Now that the city has gotten the whole site under complete control, we are going to come in, sort of in a parallel activity and work our way from the outside in, gathering all the parts, examining the parts. We will take all those parts... lay them all out and start doing the detailed examination of what we find, looking at all the tapes, listening to all the tapes, we will get the data recorders from the aircraft. It's going to take weeks to put this all together as you might expect."
Sixty people, the majority of whom are elderly, lost their homes in the crash.
Deborah Gembara, Reuters.