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".
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".