Interesting,
Reminds me when I was a Marine back in 1986 at CAX at 29 Stumps. I was
headed over to the chow tent for lunch and had just reached the end of the
runway on my long walk . Just minding my own biz, day dreaming about my
girl..all of a sudden just a horrible explosion sound . I looked back and it
looked like someone had napalmed the runway. It was all headed right towards
me!
I saw the pilot eject as his F-18 went for it's last flight by itself.
The pilot was not high enough for his chute to open fully, but at this time
I was really thinking about my own self,....being as I am pretty fond of
myself! I planted myself in the nearest dune of good old Mojave sand, and
watched the out of control Hornet go right overhead. At that moment of
course it seemed I could reach up and touch it, but it was a few hundred
feet up.
It slowly veered over to the right and crashed in the desert. From what
I heard the pilot had suffered a broken leg and numerous other minor
injuries, but he was going to be fine. Our squadron never found out exactly
what happened to that F-18 , but I was just happy I wasn't wearing it!!!!!

Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech