Navy Jet Crash In Pensacola Injures Both Pilots, Third Crash In 18 Months

A U.S. Navy training jet crashed on its approach to a runway in Pensacola, Florida, on Monday morning injuring the two members of the crew.

Navy spokeswoman, Lt. Lauryn Dempsey, said, “The two crew members are being treated at local hospitals right now… Both are stable.” The Navy has not released the names of the pilots.

The two-seater T-45C Goshawk jet, which belonged to Training Squadron 86, was on a training flight when it crashed near the end of a runway at Naval Air Station Pensacola at 10:30 a.m. according to statement issued by the Navy.

There is no word yet on the reason for this particular navy jet crash. Unfortunately, crashes of navy jets occur rather more frequently than one might imagine.

In April of this year, a U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed into the northern Arabian Sea when an engine failed. luckily, on this occasion both crew members safely ejected. The F-18 Super Hornet was flying near the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier when it lost power.

The unnamed airmen, members of Strike Fighter Squadron 103, based in Virginia Beach, Va., bailed out in time to come down safely in the water.

In one of life’s strange coincidences, in 2012 another navy jet on a training flight actually crashed onto a large apartment complex in Virginia Beach. In this case, the navy jet was carrying a large quantity of jet fuel which caused the jet to explode into a fireball on impact. Some 40 units in the complex were destroyed.

Amazingly, no one was killed, although the student pilot, his instructor and five on the ground were hurt. The mayor of Virginia Beach called it a “Good Friday miracle”

Actually, it wasn’t so much a miracle as rather a series of fortunate coincidences.

Firstly, most of the F/A-18D jet’s fuel had been dumped before the crash, causing less of an explosion.

Then, the Navy acknowledged that neighbors and citizens pulled the pilots away from the flames after they safely ejected.

The plane crashed into the apartment complex’s empty courtyard, and, because it was two days before Easter in the middle of the day, most residents weren’t home.

“At the end of the day,” said Daniel O. Rose, a former Navy jet pilot, “I think it was a lot of fortuity. You look at this as a one-off and you still got to scratch your head.”

Sadly, as events have shown, this navy jet crash was far from being a “one off!”