A Lear jet on contract to the California Air National Guard crashed yesterday into an apartment building in Fresno, killing two people and injuring at least 20, some of whom were hurt as they attempted to get out of the plane's path, officials said yesterday.
The twin-engine aircraft, which was being piloted by a civilian, was returning from a practice dogfight with Air Force F-16 pilots and had been cleared to land at the Fresno Air Terminal when the pilot "declared an emergency, overflew the airport and crashed," said Hank Verbais, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman.
Several witnesses saw smoke and fire coming from the plane as it descended about two miles southeast of the airport. It skidded for a block down a street called Olive Avenue, striking several vehicles before crashing into an 18-unit apartment complex, said Capt. Roger Stach of the Fresno Fire Department.
Advertisement
"It sounds like he was trying to use Olive Avenue as a landing strip," he said. Stach said that several of the injured were residents of the apartment complex and that others were passengers or drivers of cars on the street, some of whom attempted to flee the area when they saw the plane approach.
David Flores, a witness, said he saw a man in a blue uniform flying through the air, according to the Associated Press. Flores said he and a friend crawled through the rubble to help, only to find that the man had been decapitated. He and his friend then kicked in the door of a first-floor apartment and found two elderly women in shock. "They were just scared. They wouldn't move. We had to carry them," he said.
The apartment complex "was essentially destroyed," Stach said.
Dave Desroches was in his parked van more than a block from the apartments when he saw the plane's right wing hit a light pole and force the jet to turn around, he told the AP. Then, there was an explosion and a huge fireball that stopped inches from his van.
Advertisement
"If we had left a minute earlier, we would have been incinerated," Desroches said. "I know he was trying damn hard not to hit any houses. That's why he landed in the middle of the street."
The plane and pilot were leased from Georgia-based Phoenix Air and had been practicing a kind of electronic dogfight as the imaginary enemy against F-16 pilots of the Air Force's 144th Flight Wing, a National Guard Unit located at the Fresno Air Terminal. Nothing was actually fired at the plane, but pilots practiced intercepting the aircraft on their radar screens.
A Phoenix Air spokesman, Dent Thompson, said the plane appeared to have had "a mechanical problem" that had nothing to do with any military exercise it was involved in. Preliminary reports indicated the pilot died in the crash. The California National Guard has asked the FAA to investigate the crash.
Priest reported from Washington, Claiborne from Los Angeles.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZK6zr8eirZ5noKS5qsDInKpoaWlugXB9kWhobmegoa6vsYycqZqrmGK8r3nCmqOinp%2Bnu6qtjKyrq52VqXqstculqmZqX2mCenzAnG1xZWZqgKd5k29pnWVpbIKjeZOenXBxYGqCdbHAbmY%3D