From the LA Times, some selected highlights to be dissected:
Military jet crashes in San Diego neighborhood - Los Angeles Times
By Tony Perry and Richard Marosi
6:33 PM PST, December 8, 2008
Reporting from San Diego -- It was meant to be a routine training mission: a young Marine pilot sharpening his skills flying an F/A-18D Hornet from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln off the San Diego coast.
But as the plane had lifted off the carrier deck, the pilot quickly knew he was in trouble, possibly with a malfunction in one of the plane's engines. He radioed the air controller at Miramar, who ordered the emergency landing attempt.
As the plane crossed over land at Torrey Pines en route to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, more problems struck, possibly "flame-out" of a second engine. The plane lost altitude and began to wobble.
Residents of the University City neighborhood west of Miramar, accustomed to the sight of warplanes overhead, looked up and knew something was terribly wrong.
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"It was mushing through the air," Kreischer said. "It was chugging along with what seemed like one engine. Then I heard a roar of engine and all of a sudden, whoop, dead silence.
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Marine officials said the pilot was part of a training squadron and that he was trying to aim the plane at a deserted canyon [see google map] to avoid slamming into homes or Interstate 805.
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Military bomb specialists were combing the area for the second ejection seat, which has an explosive charge. Though the plane normally has a crew of two, only a pilot was aboard for the training mission. The plane was not carrying bombs, the Marines said.
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