F-18 fighter jet crashes in San Diego residential area 
A U.S. Marine Corps fighter jet has crashed into a residential neighborhood in San Diego, California..
The Aircraft is an F-18. Pictures to follow. We are locating the satellite feed at this time. The area is in Universal City.
Terri Potratz provided an update at 19:06 on December 8th, 2008 - UPDATE: The death toll has risen to 3, with rescuers still searching the destroyed homes for people.
Two adults and a child were killed and officials will resume searching the site for a missing child tomorrow, San Diego Fire Department spokesman Maurice Luque said in a telephone interview.
Source: bloomberg.com
Update: Navy is reporting that the pilot has been recovered. (Source: Fox News)
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NowPublic's Scan Tool is Active on this story. To see the Scan Tool in Action follow this LINK. This was the tool used by NowPublic that received international Attention as it provided up to the second information during the India Terrorist Attacks. In addition our Southeast Asia Corespondent, Sanjay Jha was on location and was sought by international media as he was on site and provided up to the minute updates to media outlets like Fox News.
The Media provided came from a news Helicopter via satellite. They were taken directly off a NTSC monitor.
F-18 Crashes in Normal Hieghts San Diego
An F-18 military jet crashed in a San Diego neighborhood on Monday, sparking at least one house fire.
It wasn't immediately clear whether anyone was injured, said Maurice Luque, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. Television news footage showed one house and two cars on fire.
Fire crews were at the scene of the crash, which occurred near Interstate 805, reports Fox 5 Affiliate in San Diego.
The plane crashed shortly before noon Monday as it prepared to land at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, said Ian Gregor, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman. The crash occurred two miles from the base.
The pilot ejected, Gregor said.
"We saw two big bangs," resident Scott Patterson told KNX radio. "The smoke came up. We don't know what it was."
The F-18 is a supersonic jet used widely in the Marine Corps and Navy.
Miramar, well known for its role in the movie "Top Gun," is home to some 10,000 Marines. It was operated by the Navy until 1996.
We are asking those near the crash site to provide media and share their personal story in the comments section. Some of those will be transferred to the main story.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (18)
at 13:00 on December 8th, 2008
Read this somewhere, San Diego, CA 92122, USA is the place where it crashed.
at 13:14 on December 8th, 2008
Thank You for your input
at 13:15 on December 8th, 2008
Thanks for the updates politisite. We're also tracking this story using our Scan tool.
at 18:23 on December 8th, 2008
"In addition our Southeast Asia Corespondent, Sanjay Jha was on location and was sought by international media as he was on site and provided up to the minute updates to media outlets like Fox News. "
Sanjay was in New Delhi while the terrorist attack was in Mumbai? Am I wrong on this? If so, he wasn't on location.
at 18:38 on December 8th, 2008
Zichi, your comment is appearing in an irrelevant thread but I will address your question - Sanjay resides in New Delhi but traveled to Mumbai after the terrorist attacks to cover unfolding events in person. Sanjay filed great content while in Mumbai, and spoke with many people - including some NowPublic contributors in the area. I encourage you to read his stories:
Mumbai Eyewitnesses Recall Horror of Attacks
Mumbai Terror Attacks Aftermath: City Adjusts to a New World
at 01:37 on December 9th, 2008
Terri, my comment wasn't irrelevant and I only bought it up because its actually mentioned in the body of this post. I did read all the reports from Sanjay on the Mumbai attack which was well done but I wasn't clear if he was reporting from New Delhi or Mumbai, so thank you for clearing that up. Also the other reports were excellent, especially by someone from Mumbai (sorry I can't remember the avatar?)
at 10:09 on December 9th, 2008
I believe Ravi Dixit is the member you're referring to.
at 23:26 on December 8th, 2008
Hello, I was on the location and was filing the stories from there. I think you have not followed my stories from the ground.
at 01:38 on December 9th, 2008
Sanjay I did read many of your stories but not all because you filed many and did an excellent job, thank you.
at 10:25 on December 12th, 2008
Zichi, Sanjay also appeared live on Fox News on location...several times during the days of the event until they had one of their reporters in place. This shows where NP can be on scene faster then the news as we have reporters in 6000 cities around the world. In this case, NowPublic filled in the gap and provided on the spot news many hours before Network reporters could be on scene.
at 10:43 on December 12th, 2008
Al, thank you for the info, I was going by Sajay's avatar so I was misguided. I don't watch FOX but Sanjay and others did excellent reporting and Mumbai was good for NP, better than the copy and paste. I'm not sure about the claim to have posters in 6000 cities around the world, I've never seen them on NP? zichi
at 10:20 on December 12th, 2008
Sanjay,
I guess some folks think you can't travel. When i say I am on location at one of the presidential debates, it is that I got in a motor vehicle and traveled to the event. I am not sure why anyone would think that our reporting from location means we are restricted to that area. I think it was more of an attempt to discredit my story then dispute that you were actually on scene.
NowPublic now has a tag that says, "Eyewitness" so that reader can tell if the writer is on scene, as you were, It is not appropriate to add an eyewitness tag to this story even though it was based on satellite equipment and breaking news alerts.
Because NowPublic is the largest Crowd Powered news Agency in the world, the Story was an attempt to source eyewitness who could add additional relevant information that I couldn't possible Obtain in Columbia, SC. Any time I write a breaking story it is to get our folks in the 6000 cities we serve activated to provide on the spot direct eyewitness reporting.
Although this is probably more appropriate for our forums, I thought it instructional , for our new comers, exactly how we develop a story at NowPublic.
at 19:06 on December 8th, 2008
UPDATE: The death toll has risen to 3, with rescuers still searching the destroyed homes for people.
Source: bloomberg.com
at 23:05 on December 8th, 2008
Terri. I will add your update to the body of the article
at 22:39 on December 8th, 2008
That is very unfortunate. I hate it for the families. It must have been some kind of equipment malfunction that caused the pilot to have to eject over a residential area. Marine and Navy pilots and maintenance personel are the best in the world.
at 23:16 on December 8th, 2008
Thank You to all of you who contributed to this story.
at 05:52 on December 9th, 2008
Location was:
Li I Wu
4406 Cather Ave
San Diego, CA 92122-2614
Latitude: 32 51.646N
Longitude 117 11.902W
Street view link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=4412+cather+ave,+san+diego,+ca&sll=37.09024,-95.712891&sspn=31.150864,56.601563&ie=UTF8&ll=32.862214,-117.198501&spn=0.008057,0.013819&z=16&g=4412+cather+ave,+san+diego,+ca&iwloc=addr&layer=c&cbll=32.860798,-117.198535&panoid=4ZVABa3N8Q9EBWgVsmCQjA&cbp=12,100.76553180424236,,0,-0.28855789471108645
at 12:08 on December 9th, 2008
Thanks for the exact location of the event.