On Tuesday, a military twin-engine F/A-18D Hornet crashed into a San Diego suburb killing four people and setting homes and a car on fire. That’s bad. That’s really bad. But I was interested to note that the pilot ejected and, while injured, is recovering in a hospital. Whatever happened to that fighter jock ethic so heroically expressed by the Great Santini? I always thought they were supposed to ride those in to avoid or minimize the loss of civilian life. Instead, this pilot was found dangling in a tree while the people in the house his aircraft destroyed got all crispy.Advice given to RAF pilots during W.W.II: When a prang (crash) seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slowly and gently as possible.Or, if you’re faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible (Bob Hoover – renowned aerobatic and test pilot).If an airplane is still in one piece, don’t cheat on it; ride the bastard down (Ernest K. Gann, author & aviator).And finally, “[I]f you’re ever going down, you’ve got to get this on the cockpit voice recorder: ‘Did you see the tentacles on that thing?’"For other snappy pilot chitchat, visit this site. No one mentions bailing out.
Military Plane Crash Kills Four
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