F-18 Crashes in San Diego Neighborhood

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

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

...The pilot, who ended up hanging by his parachute from a tree in a canyon beneath the neighborhood, was in stable condition at a naval hospital in San Diego, said Miramar spokeswoman 1st Lt. Katheryn Putnam. The pilot was returning from training on the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the San Diego coast when the plane went down, she said.

Putnam had no details on a possible cause..." -Associated Press 

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With the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar seen in the background, smoke rises from a fire in a suburban neighborhood, foreground, after an F-18 military jet crashed while attempting to land at Miramar.  Monday, Dec. 8, 2008 - San Diego.