http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081208-1453-bn08plane4.html

two dead on the ground, pilot has minor injuries

12/8/2008 6:21:33 PM

hopefully not theDuke

12/8/2008 6:46:14 PM

this happened like 3 hours ago, i saw it on tv at the Acura dealership

12/8/2008 6:47:32 PM

yeah, i first saw the headline around 12:30p but the casualties were recently reported

12/8/2008 6:52:51 PM

yah, everyone on the local news was getting their 15 minutes

12/8/2008 6:53:59 PM

Quote :

"hopefully not theDuke"

Quote :

"The aircraft was a two-seat F/A-18D "

I believe he flys a prowler.

12/8/2008 6:56:41 PM

and i don't think he is in SD - i do have several friends who are stationed out there though

12/8/2008 7:01:43 PM

too close for missiles, switching to kamikaze

12/8/2008 8:04:53 PM

3 dead

12/8/2008 8:14:26 PM

Quote :

" I believe he flys a prowler."

he doesn't fly 'em. he's an ECMO. but yes, definitely could not be the duke. wrong aircraft. also he might be in Iraq

[Edited on December 8, 2008 at 8:33 PM. Reason : .]

12/8/2008 8:33:23 PM

he is in Iraq.

12/8/2008 8:53:57 PM

i'm in iraq. have some friends who fly D-models out in SD, though.

12/8/2008 9:05:40 PM

ok...when I said hopefully not theDuke + I wasn't being serious. lol I know it couldn't have been him.

12/8/2008 9:10:38 PM

how come no one said it could be wizzkidd!?!?!?

12/9/2008 2:36:08 AM

damn sure fuckin hope it aint wizzkidd

12/9/2008 2:41:44 AM

I saw this on CNN the other day. The pilot should have had the decency to ride that one in.

12/13/2008 7:52:50 AM

No way. That's an almost guaranteed fatality, and it wouldn't have gained anything--just a dead pilot in addition to dead people on the ground.

12/13/2008 8:33:11 AM

Quote :

"He said the plane, which had clipped treetops, was just seconds from the ground when the pilot ejected. "

Quote :

"“The plane was really low and it was quiet,” Harris said. “Usually, they're so loud, I have to stop teaching.” "

Sounds like both engines fod'ed out, dead stick, waited till the last second to bail out. Good on him, hopefully he has a good recovery and RIP to the family that died.

12/13/2008 8:44:46 AM

15 month old girl
wife of dude
mother of wife.

that sucks, i can't imagine losing my family in one day.

12/13/2008 1:36:11 PM

^ yeah. pretty terrible tragedy.

^^ I haven't heard very much other than what's been on the news, which reported that the Hornet was diverted to Miramar after losing an engine offshore at the boat. Losing an engine isn't that big of a deal, in and of itself. I mean, it wouldn't be a good day at work, but it's not that big of a deal. He ended up losing the other one near the field, though.

That is awfully unusual. Doesn't sound like fuel starvation, since they quit several minutes apart. Only thing I can think of is that the first failure was catastrophic, and FOD'ed the 2nd engine, but not badly enough that it quit immediately (and maybe not badly enough that the pilot realized that the 2nd engine was damaged).

There is school of that says he could've diverted to NAS North Island (on Coronado Island), where he wouldn't be over populated areas as much, but with what I know, I'd say he made the right decision. Go to home field, where you're familier, where you have maintenance support, especially since the odds of the 2nd engine failing aren't very high.

12/13/2008 2:21:51 PM

Quote :

"15 month old girl wife of dude mother of wife. that sucks, i can't imagine losing my family in one day."

there were actually 4 dead, the body of their 2-month-old daughter was found the following day -- terrible stuff

i think the pilot was trying to get to the canyon nearby, he was really close

12/13/2008 3:11:09 PM

I hate to hear this, especially as a military pilot. I know he held on as long as he could trying to make it clear of the homes. For an F18 to lose both engines like that is statistically extremely rare so something must have really been messed up. Its also a heavy plane to fly with no power and low air speed so it was dropping like a rock. Im sure he bailed out as late as he could, trying to hold it together. Its sad he killed those people and that will weigh on him forever.

[Edited on December 13, 2008 at 11:17 PM. Reason : .]

12/13/2008 11:15:06 PM

"extremely rare"

in other words this pilot needs to go under investigation because he worked this one i feel

12/13/2008 11:17:33 PM

its like Duke was saying, something catastrophic must have happened mechanically to mess up both engines, but with a delay between shut down. For this to happen is very rare and I doubt its pilot error. Any pilot that flies a multi engine plane practices flying on one engine, and like Duke said its not a good day but its a survivable problem. In advanced we flew twin engine T-44s, and we practiced one engine contingencies. I seriously doubt it was pilot error that caused both engines to shut down

12/13/2008 11:22:25 PM

well this looks like there's not a lot of pilot decision making in this one. (just at a glace) I agree with Duke, go to home field; where you're familiar.

Who knows what went wrong... but a dual engine failure in THAT airplane truns it into a great big rock. And there's not a whole lot anyone can do. Point it away from houses as best you can, and pull the handle.

12/13/2008 11:26:26 PM

Yeah an F18 with no power loses airspeed quick and will drop quick

12/13/2008 11:39:43 PM

also, I don't know anything about the Hornet's control systems, but with both engines out, you have no generators and no hyd pumps, so he may not have had any control over the jet at all (and certainly wouldn't have been able to glide far or do much...it's not a Cessna--it doesn't glide that well). If he was on a landing approach, he would've been low and slow enough to be done almost instantly in a dual-engine out scenario (he wouldn't have been coming in for the break...he would've been slow to begin with).

I know that in the Prowler, the turbines will windmill as long as you're going fast enough (150 kias) to still give you at least a little hydraulic pressure (and thus control authority). Of course, if both engines failed, there is a substantial chance that they were both physically seized up and therefore not windmilling anyway.

and yes, there will be an investigation like you don't even know. In fact, it starts with the blood samples they took from him right after picking him up.

[Edited on December 14, 2008 at 2:15 AM. Reason : rdhgrfdhg]

12/14/2008 2:08:53 AM

Quote :

"but with both engines out, you have no generators and no hyd pumps, so he may not have had any control over the jet at all "

spoke to a former hornet pilot, he said the same thing. a lot of aviators are sad about it. no one likes any loss of life.

12/14/2008 2:20:14 AM

i think he'll be able to cope w/ it since it wasn't his fault. will take time though.

[Edited on December 15, 2008 at 3:45 PM. Reason : ]

12/15/2008 3:44:46 PM

having lived withing spitting distance from Miramar as a kid, i watched two there aircraft (F14 dumped into a canyon 1.5 miles form my house) and a chinook autorotated into a baseball field) go down in the area, but back then there were a lot less houses. looking at the area he did his dam best to get it into the open canyon, and it was less that 50 feet from being in it when the f18 dumped in. the loss of life sucked but he was within glide of a high school a mall and a college at the time and he tried to minimize the threat. As for coming into north island, they woudl not have wanted it due to isses with the commercial airport, as an emergency woudl have shutdown airtraffic in and out of the large single runway airport that is across the bay from the north island, and most approaches to noth island take you in over the city/bay or over Coronado depending on the winds.

i feel super bad for the guy on the ground, but even he knows it 3was an accident and does not blame the pilot. The pilot has to be beating himself up big time over it, but he did the best he could given the bad situation.

12/15/2008 7:25:30 PM