Fighter jet crash kills 3 on ground in San Diego

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-9  |     ONLINE EDITION

A fighter jet on a training flight careened into a suburban neighborhood in the Californian city of San Diego yesterday and slammed into two homes, killing three people. The pilot safely ejected, officials said.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said the victims might have been in a home where there were reports that a mother, grandmother and two children were present at the time of the crash.

The F/A-18D fighter suffered a mechanical problem when approaching the nearby Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after taking off from an aircraft carrier offshore in the Pacific as part of a training exercise.

Neighbor Ron Belanger lives five houses from the home where the plane went down and said the whole neighborhood shook. The plane left a deep gash in the pavement where it hit before striking two homes.

Authorities evacuated 20 homes in the well-manicured neighborhood while they continued the search for victims and evidence from the crash.

The pilot parachuted into a school field and got caught up in a tree. He was alert and walking after the crash and was taken to a military hospital as a precaution, said Lt. Katheryn Putnam, a spokeswoman for the air station.

Witnesses told local radio the pilot might have been heading the plane to crash in a big canyon nearby in order to avoid a school.