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Stealth Update: September 14, 1997Web posted at: 9:27 p.m. EDT (0127 GMT) MIDDLE RIVER, Maryland (CNN) -- An Air Force stealth jet broke apart during an air show and crashed into a suburban Baltimore neighborhood Sunday, setting a house on fire and injuring four people on the ground. The pilot ejected seconds before the jet hit the ground and exploded in a cloud of black smoke. The F-117A stealth fighter-bomber crashed about 3 p.m. into Bowley's Condo Marina on Chesapeake Bay, near the Glenn Martin State Airport. It was making its final passes at the Chesapeake Air Show and was preparing to return to its base when the crash occurred. Baltimore County Fire Capt. Steve Gisriel said a man and three women at the condominium complex sustained only minor injuries and were not taken to the hospital. Amateur video of accident from the nearby lake Among them was an elderly woman who managed to escape her home seconds after the plane slammed into her garage. The pilot, identified as Capt. Bryan Knight, also was treated at the scene for minor injuries to his back and neck. Gisriel said the fire was contained within an hour. The plane carried approximately 11,000 pounds of fuel, he said. A house, a garage and two motor vehicles were destroyed and another house was damaged, Gisriel said. A three-block area in this suburb east of Baltimore was evacuated to allow military officials to investigate. The F-117A -- known for its radar-evading abilities -- is made of a top-secret material that the Pentagon would like to keep classified. Witness: 'It was absolutely horrible' Eyewitnesses described -- and amateur videotape showed -- pieced falling off the plane as it passed over a runway at the airport. Sharon Schuchardt, who was watching the air show from a boat, witnessed the crash. "The plane was flying over and the tail end just blew off," she told CNN. "At first we thought it was part of the act. All of a sudden, the plane just started going down." "It's something nobody in their lifetime would ever want to experience,"
she said. "It was horrible, absolutely horrible. ... It was huge, a total
explosion, and then we just kept hearing popping sounds ... the tires or
the gas tank." Sharon Schuchardt
--------------------------------------- Another witness, Kimberly Chaapel, noticed "part of the wing fell off" before the plane went down and the pilot ejected. "He started rolling head over tail and (the pilot) ejected probably 500 feet before the ground," she said. "He was very, very lucky." She said she drove to the crash scene and found the pilot walking around in her uncle's yard and got him into a lawn chair. "He said he was fine," she said, but was rubbing his neck. Andy Kunkowski said he was watching the show from a small boat near the shoreline and immediately went to the scene of the crash and spoke to the pilot. "He said he was truly sorry about what had happened and said he tried to pull it out," Kunkowski said. "He wanted to land this thing in the water, but couldn't." "He said everything was fine until he started to make an incline, and at that point he realized the rear wasn't doing what it was supposed to," Kunkowski said. No F-117s lost in the Persian Gulf War The Air Force said the F-117A had taken off from Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, and was to return after flying by the air show. The aircraft, assigned to the 7th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, was one of two F-117As loaned temporarily at Langley to support air shows along the East Coast, the Air Force said. The boomerang-shaped F-117 Nighthawk, armed with laser-guided bombs, was used in the Gulf War against the most heavily defended Iraqi targets because of its ability to evade radar and radar-guided missiles. Air Force sources told CNN that this is the third major accident this year involving the single-seat F-117A, but the first this year in which a plane was destroyed. The Air Force did lose an F-117A during a night training exercise in New Mexico in spring 1995. The pilot was killed in that accident. Air Force sources said an experimental prototype of the F-117A was lost during testing when the plane was a "classified project." There have been a total of six serious accidents involving F-117As in the 1990s, a serious accident being defined as one that resulted in a loss of life or at least $1 million damage. The F-117A costs about $45 million. The Air Force had 54 in its inventory before Sunday's crash. The Air Force said the plane generally has a good safety record, and in the Persian Gulf War none were lost. Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre and The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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September 15, 1997 6:29 AM EDT By David Morgan ESSEX, Md. (Reuter) - A U.S. Air Force F-117A stealth fighter broke up and crashed into three houses in suburban Baltimore Sunday after the pilot ejected from the aircraft during an air show, the Defense Department said. Four people on the ground suffered minor injuries after pieces of the plane plunged into the houses, authorities said. The Air Force has launched an investigation. Amateur video showed parts of the plane breaking off as it started to climb after flying level over the airfield outside Baltimore. The plane then tumbled and rolled, trailing smoke and other material, the videotape showed. A sharp explosion marked the pilot's ejection and the plane then tumbled straight to the ground. Local emergency officials said there were no fatalities. ``It occurred during a flyover at an air show,'' Defense Department spokesman Ken Bacon told Reuters. ``The pilot is undergoing emergency treatment.'' Bacon said the black aircraft designed to evade radar detection crashed about 3 p.m. EDT, about a mile southeast of Martin State Airport, which is about 13 miles east of Baltimore. No one was killed in the accident, said Pam Miles of the Bowleys Quarters Volunteer Fire Department, which responded to the crash. Capt. Keri Humphrey, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said the pilot of the downed aircraft had parachuted safely and was being taken to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., for observation. Four people on the ground -- one man and three women -- sustained minor injuries, said Steve Gisriel, a captain with Baltimore County's fire department. The crash occurred as the plane was performing at the annual Chesapeake Air Show, he said. ``It was doing a fly-by for the crowd and suddenly crashed,'' he said. The aircraft, which was carrying 11,000 pounds of fuel, exploded, destroying a house, a garage and two motor vehicles, and damaging two other homes, Gisriel said. Fire fighters used foam and water to put out the blaze. Authorities ordered the evacuation of a three block area as a hazardous materials team scoured the crash site and searched for fragments of the plane. Up to 50 people were forced from their homes and were being sheltered at a local fire department. Mark Hubbard, battalion chief of the county fire department, said some additional people appeared to be in shock, but no future injury reports were expected. ``We don't expect anything more from what we've seen,'' he said. ``A number of people are in shock. We are counting our blessings that this wasn't worse than it has been. This is a very good event from that aspect.'' Officials could not immediately determine the cause of the crash, which forced the closing of the airport, but witnesses said part of the aircraft's tail fell off during flight. The F-117 was used with devastating effect to drop laser-guided bombs on Iraqi military targets during the 1991 Gulf War. The batwing-shaped aircraft is built of special composite materials that absorb and deflect radar signals. The planes are used to attack at night because they fly slower than the speed of sound. There are currently about 55 of the single-seat F-117 jets, all based at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, where the plane that crashed was based. The planes were built by Lockheed Corp before it merged with Martin Marietta Corp. to form Lockheed Martin Corp. They were built as part of a super-secret Air Force ``black'' program; the first one was delivered to the Air Force in 1982 and the last in 1992. At least two of the aircraft have previously crashed during training flights. The little jets are 65 feet long and have a wingspan of 43 feet. They weigh 52,500 pounds without a weapons load. The U.S. military is currently looking to the F-22, a new faster-than-sound stealth fighter, to replace the F-117s after 2000. The F-22, which is being developed by Lockheed Martin, made its first test flight in Georgia this month. |