Well, we had a little excitement today...... a Boeing (McDonnell Douglas) AV-8B Harrier flamed out on final approach and "fall down go boom" over a well-packed residential section of town today. A friend of mine (retired Marine) was sitting in his home office and heard the plane flyover his house; "..it's was way too low for final, and it didn't sound right...." Glenn (my friend) ran out the front door; and had just enough time to ID the plane and that the exhaust nozzles were rotated almost fully down (they vector the exhaust thrust earthward for vertical takeoff and landing) when the engines flamed out. He saw the pilot punch out right after the flameout - about the same time he ID'd 4 500lb bombs hanging from the wings; and he didn't wait around any longer, just grabbed the wife and kids and boogied Seems he didn't need to wait around and see what happened; he'd seen it before. As I type this, all four bombs have been located intact, and are being "cooled down" prior to transport; along with about 300 rounds of 20mm. "Cooled down" is a loose term concerning one of the 500 pounders; as it was found in a swimming pool about three houses from the one that the Harrier landed upon. Mrs StDr and I were both "Activated"; she was already at work and was told that they weren't going anywhere for a while, and I was called up to man one of the Emergency Ooperations Centers - but we were both advised to stand down 'cause it wasn't that big of a deal so far. The casualty list looks like 5 injuries (including the pilot), no deaths. Right now, they're still trying to locate all the 20 mike-mike; and will transport everything to MCAS once they find it all (and pull the one bomb out of the pool). More as I hear it. Hey, skywalker; "scarier Harriers" can't autorotate can they? They're about as aerodynamic as a 15-lb fire extinguisher; so, as Glenn put it, it was "POP, punch, THUD".
Glad no one was killed! What are y'all gonna do for an encore? BTW......You're "POP, punch, THUD!" Reminds me of the time my Dad told an Admiral (US Navy) that the F-14A Tomcat "has the glide characteristics of a rock."
Man, I remember being there and wathcing those things do 360s in mid-air and thought it was kewlas hell. But I hold my breath watching them land. They areincredibly maintenence intensive (they're old, poorly engineered and under powered.) I just feel sorry for the plane captain and pilot who are going to be put through utter hell over this. The 4 500 pounders wouldn't worry me to much - but I also wouldn't mess with it after it landed. They generally won't blow unless they've been pickled. The 20mm was more dangerous, a little heat, the wrongamount of pressure ont he wrong part, a little static eletricity...boom. We just call em scariers. They pick up everything in site, so when you share a flight line with them, fod walk is soooo much fun. They're loud as hell too. Sound like a screaming banshee on take off. Guys in our unit complain about the hornets on our flight line in atl, but I don't think they come even close to harriers.
my uncle's brother in law used to be a harrier mechanic. he said he would be working on one and all the sudden a pilot would take off vertical, the plane would go sideways, the pilot would eject into the woods and the plane would wreck and hed get to fix it
When I was an AF mechanic at March AFB in Riverside, Cali, there were 10 B52s with nukes on board on the alert pad. I used to watch my buddies in munitions loads those fat boys on bomb fork lifts. They would bump those bad boys on the fuselage trying to wiggle them into the bomb bays, talk about scary moments, but they reassured me that there were many arming procedures before they went boom!
Well, I'm typing as I watch the 10 o' clock news. Presently, there are still 1300 homes evacuated; waiting to hear in a news conference (any minute now) that they can go home. So far, 10:00 families have been told they are not going home for a week or so; due to debris from the crash and damage to the houses themselves. ***Press conference, will type later***
***Press Conference still in progress*** The "You can not go home tonight list" has expanded to 52 homes; everybody else is free to go home. Those on the list are being held until they are searched and "....material from the aircraft is recovered..." - quote a WM Lt from PIO. Search and recovery has been called for the night; will resume 7:00AM tomorrow. Bombs have been recovered and are back aboard MCAS Yuma; still searching for Scarier debris and some still unfound 20mm rounds. Oh yeah, one of Mrs StDr's colleagues in our Recovery Rooms (and a good friend of ours) was grumping when the hospital's Code Charlie was called during the last hour before she went off duty and started her vacation. Well, she hasn't gotten to leave yet - all her stuff and her dog is in her home - which is one of the 52..... Happy vacation. sky: one of the locals was out in the streets using a Nikon digi-cam in the "movie" mode (I recognized the menu screen) and passed it along to one ov the TV stations. He was within a couple of house lots from the crash site, good video of the fire and also debris in the area. Video shut down rather quickly when you (and the guy with the camera) started hearing the 20's cooking off. Crash time has been stated as 2:32PM. Well that's about all I'm gonna get out of the news conference.... Other than that there's a power outage in about a 6 block area that will be fixed yet tonight; another 3-4 blocks that won't have power restored until the Marines are finished clearing the area and let the Electric utility in to fix their stuff. Once they're done, I have a feeling I'm gonna be busy for a few days! EDIT (actually, an editorial): Before anybody says anything about warplanes crashing into residential areas: The Marine was on final approach to the Airport/Marine Base's one "north-south" oriented runway. The runway threshold is less than 1/2 mile from the crash site. How can this be????? Really simple - the airfield was first constructed as an Army Air Corps flight training facility in 1942. It was de-activated in 1947, and re-activated in 1951 as an Air Force Base; co-located with our local civilian airport. In the mid-to-late 50's, it was turned over to the Marine Corps. So, it's been around about 64 years. The residential subdivision was built in the early 70's - a little over 30 years ago. I cannot imagine anybody who "walked through" the house prior to purchasing in this area that didn't hear at least one military, commercial, or civilian aircraft flying overhead on takeoff or final approach. If the question is "How can they let this happen?" my answer is a loudly resounding "DUH!"
Everyone living in So Cal is under some flight path. Airliners,, private props and jets, news and police helicopters, and military jets are everywhere. ] I did see that video this morning on the news. Another view from the air of the aftermath showed that the plane sort of landed in the corner of four residential properties.
Don't worry, Fritz; I'm sure it'll show up some time. Had a job in that neighborhood today, all but a couple of streets were open - except for the out-of-town TV News trucks parked all over the place Little reporter bimbettes (yes I said that - and you'll read why in a minute) running around the neighborhood; interviewing everybody in sight about the "carnage and destruction" - I swear to God, one little doe-eyed soon-to-be starlet actually used that phrase! One of them even made the mistake of interviewing me while I was trying to work; I was the guy with my arms strategically folded to cover the company logo on my shirt. I doubt it will make the TV; but you might see some Dude in a cowboy hat responding that "...it could be worse...", "...I'm surprised it hasn't happened before..." and "it's to be expected when they build houses this close to an existing military airstrip..." They didn't believe me on that last one; so I trotted out the history of MacAuflie Field, whatever-they-called -it Air Force Base, and MCAS-Yuma. They weren't all that impressed with what I had to say. Somehow, I don't think I presented the tone they were looking for
Problem is, those little idealistic bambi's are liberal as hell and think we can just get rid of the military and the world will suddenly be at peace. They blame this ont he military when in fact, building a house next to an airfield which is near a large as hell bombing range is as smart asthese jackasses here in so cal who build their houses on cliffs. BTW, cnn litterally said that one fo those recent collapsed cliffs was the fault of global warming and that there should be laws to require insurance companies to insure such losses. After all it isn't the homeowner's the cliff collapsed! hahaa
Course that isn't as good as the cnn reporter asking a michael jackson spokesman where he was right now and the spokesman said "Well right now mr jackson is in neverland." and they then went to the next question...
Yeah, I know. The bimbette (Bambi was far wiser) that interviewed me was from KGUN - 9 out of Tucson. I'd bet jst6 could chime in and agree that KGUN's leanings are (conservatively) about 75-80* to the LEFT. An Air Nat'l Guard Warthog flamed out and dropped into a neighborhood school in Tucson; KGUN led the charge to shut down both the Air Guard unit and Davis-Monthan AFB. Obviously, they failed; even in super-Liberal Tucson (which is Tohono O'odom Indian for "I wish I lived in Kalifornika!"), they ran against public opinion and lost. I have to give the bimbette credit; she had the sense to figure out my "interview" wasn't going her way and was calling "Cut, cut!" as I finished my last sentence. Camera guy kept rolling 'til the end; then talked to me: Camera guy: "Don't worry, I didn't get your company shirt in the frame" Me: "Thanks" CG: "Is all that stuff true?" Me: "Yep. I probably wouldn't have been born in this town if my folks hadn't gotten jobs at Yuma Proving Grounds; which is the Army base that massively expanded the same time the Air Force re-opened this (pointing 3/8 mile south) Air Base did" CG: "Thanks man. I'm gonna save this tape for the news director" Me: "Good luck! I used to live in Tucson. If you try to push this tape; maybe you can get a job at Channel 4 or Channel 13" CG: "Yeah " That station's managment probably still isn't admitting that W Bush won - the first time!
We have a similar problem on L.I........ L.I. is basically one BIG sand bar (okay....moraine left over from the glaciers of the last ice age).......people with more money than brains build houses on DUNE Road.....so named because it runs along the dunes of the south shore along the ATLANTIC OCEAN.......so named because it is one really, really, really big puddle of water. These houses usually are on the OCEAN side of the DUNES.....(see where this is going yet?)......BIG waves come along and wash houses off of the beach and into the ocean and then the people who built them want the insurance companies to rebuild their houses, failing that, they sue the townships for failing to protect their homes from these big nasty waves.............................
My brother-in-law Mark (the one I get along with) has a good line; "They're trying to make the entire world 'Nerf' "
Well my friends, I just came back from an alarm and I am now convinced more than ever that the ONLY thing wrong with this planet is the human race, the majority of which are blithering idiots! We should just eradicate ourselves and let Mother Nature get on with repairing the damage we've done!
Easy answer, Fritz. Just take a few days off - you and the whole house; let Darwinism take its course.
Yeah, makes ya wonder doesn't it.... CAUTION! Politically Sensitive Statement Ahead! Why is it that The Libs spend so much time fighting to ensure that Darwinism is the only supported theory of our rise to the top of the animal kingdom; then spend even more time fighting to ensure Darwinism is rendered useless? By the way, I was right; the movement is growing (vocally, at least) to force MCAS-Yuma to either relocate or close; in order to keep its inherent dangers away from those who have insisted on squeezing housing in all around it. "In other news, authorities finally concede that the inmates have indeed wrested away control of the asylum"
