3 killed as jet fighter crashes in suburb

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-10  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

Smoke rises after the crash of F-18 military jet in a suburban neighborhood in San Diego on Monday. The jet was approaching a Marine Corps air station when it crashed near a busy highway in this densely populated neighborhood.

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A UNITED States jet fighter returning to a Marine base after a training exercise crashed in flames in a San Diego neighborhood on Monday, killing three people on the ground, leaving one missing and destroying two homes.

The pilot of the F-18 Hornet jet ejected safely just before the crash around noon near the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Explosions rocked a neighborhood of half-million-dollar homes, sending flames and plumes of smoke skyward.

"The house shook. The ground shook. It was like I was frozen in my place," said Steve Krasner, who lives a few blocks from the crash. "It was bigger than any earthquake I ever felt."

Three people were killed in a house where two children, a mother and a grandmother were believed to be at the time of the crash.

The pilot ended up hanging by his parachute from a tree in a canyon.


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