Lightning isn't suppose to strike twice. Two catastrophic mechanical failures are two too many for me.

A Navy jet crashed Friday into apartments near Virginia Beach, Virginia, sending flames and thick black smoke into the air, a military spokesman and a witness said. At least two people were hurt, a hospital spokeswoman said.


Besides the two we know of because there were civilians involved, what else is happening with F-18s we would not be happy about?


I do believe the F-15s were reliable and it is time the military prove to the American people the F18s (ALL THE F18s) are just as reliable and capable in the nation's security inventory.


...Felissa Ezell, 71, was sitting in a folding chair outside her townhouse near the crash site Friday and recalled hearing the crash as she returned home earlier in the day.


"Oh, my God, I heard three really loud explosions, then the black smoke went up high in the sky," she said.


The same model of fighter jet, an F/A-18D, crashed in December 2008 while returning to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after a training exercise in a San Diego neighborhood. That crash killed four members of one family and destroyed two homes.

The Marine Corps said the jet suffered a mechanical failure, but a series of bad decisions led the pilot — a student — to bypass a potentially safe landing at a coastal Navy base after his engine failed. The pilot ejected and told investigators he screamed in horror as he watched the jet plow into the neighborhood, incinerating two homes. A federal judge ordered the U.S. government to pay the family nearly $18 million in restitution.


Are there or are there not missing people? I am grateful for the pilot that obviously maintained his perspective as he dumped the jet's fuel. He saved lives. 


Beside civilian lives and property, I do not want well trained pilots' lives on the line for the sake of some flaw in the design of these jets. We have seen this before with aircraft like the Osprey and how dedicated our military is to their country. We know they will accept any adversity they are faced with, even though, that adversity is not an enemy but some design that should never have made it off the drawing board. I want answers to these incidents and I want our pilots safe. 


When our pilots are safe, the people are safe. I don't want excuses, I want answers.


I hope all the injured will be well again soon without impairment.

Navy jet crashes into Virginia apartments, 3 unaccounted for

By Matthew Ward

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia
Sat Apr 7, 2012 12:27am EDT

(Reuters) - A U.S. Navy F/A-18D fighter crashed into an apartment complex in Virginia soon after takeoff on Friday, sending fireballs into the sky, damaging six buildings and injuring at least seven people.

No deaths have been reported, but three residents of the Mayfair Mews complex for the elderly were unaccounted for, authorities said.

"We have physically been in every structure, and we have 95 percent completed the search and rescue," Virginia Beach Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Tim Riley said....