Navy Jet Crashes Into Apartment Building
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It's 10:00 p.m. here on the East Coast. And we begin tonight with breaking news. A Navy fighter jet crashing into a Virginia Beach apartment complex just after takeoff this morning. Rescuers are searching at least five heavily damaged buildings. They're looking for survivors. They're looking for victims. Witnesses on the ground saw the plane going down, nose in the air and dumping fuel before it crashed, sending fire and thick black smoke into the air. An eyewitness joining us now by telephone. Sir, can you hear me?</s>MATTHEW EDWARDS, EYEWITNESS: Yes. Yes, I can.</s>BANFIELD: Tell me everything you saw.</s>EDWARDS: I just got of off work, and it was a little before noon. I was sitting on my couch and I heard a big bang and went to door and my uncle who lives across from me, his name is Pat Kavanaugh. We both came out and we looked up and saw the big black smoke behind our building. He cuts back through his house. I come around the building and see the pilot in our backyard laying there. He was talking. I asked him if he was OK. He said yes and my uncle was right there with him. I didn't really worry about him too much because my uncle is an EMT, retired. I went throughout the building complex, just yelling and telling everybody to get out. We have got to get away. Thank God, not a lot of people were home. It was crazy. Very crazy.</s>BANFIELD: And I had heard that the pilot may have said to some witnesses on the scene or at least residents on the scene he was sorry he had crashed into their home. Is that true, and did you see anything like that?</s>EDWARDS: Yes, ma'am, I did hear him say that as I was walking away from the pilot. He said that to my uncle as I was walking away. But, yes, I did hear that.</s>BANFIELD: I want you to stand by, Mr. Edwards, Matthew Edwards joining us, an eyewitness to the scene. Because our Barbara Starr is also standing by -- Barbara, what's the latest from the Pentagon on what happened and how this happened?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, this really incredible scene that we watched unfold a good part of the day happened apparently when the training flight took off from the Oceana Naval Air Station, a two-seater F-18. By all accounts it ran into trouble very quickly because basically it crashed into the apartment building about two miles from the runway. So the working assumption right now is it did not achieve significant altitude before the pilots realized they were in trouble, leading them, forcing them into an ejection potentially at very low altitude. Pilots as we have talked about very well trained to try and steer their plane away from populated areas. But these two may not have had any choice. We have the witnesses reporting flames under the plane. We have reports that fuel was coming out of the plane and the initial indications from the Navy are that that was not fuel dumping, but rather part of what this catastrophic malfunction may have been in the plane that led to the fuel basically flowing out of the plane. So what the Navy is saying is that this was a catastrophic mechanical malfunction of some sort. They're going to be looking for the data recorder. They're going to be looking to pick up all the debris from this so they can look at it and analyze what happened.</s>BANFIELD: I just want to go back to what you mentioned a moment ago, and that is about the fuel being released from the plane beforehand. This is something they're assessing at this point whether the fuel was being dumped so the impact wasn't as critical or this could have been the beginning of the breakup of a plane.</s>STARR: Yes. You know, by all indications right now, they don't seem to think -- and these are very initial reports -- they don't seem to think it was necessarily what you and I would call a pilot dumping fuel for safety reasons, but more or less part of the malfunction. I think it's very early on and they're going to be investigating all of this, trying to determine what happened. But, you know, the fact is the fact that it crashed less than two miles from the runway is the clearest indication that they ran into trouble very quickly and they were not able to achieve significant altitude.</s>BANFIELD: And then of course, Barbara, one of the accounts is also that one of the pilots was actually able to verbalize to a resident I'm sorry that we hit your house. You know how early reports come out. I don't want to lend any credibility to that right away, but if that's something that they're discussing that would suggests that his or her condition is good at this point.</s>STARR: Yes, we did have some viewers on our air earlier today as you saw that said the pilot apologized for hitting their apartment building. By all accounts at this point, and it may change through the night still, both of the pilots are OK. One already released. One still being treated. But still, let's be very clear here. Emergency services are continuing to search through the wreckage, search through the buildings. There are mixed reports, mixed numbers about whether or not there may still be people on the ground missing because there are residents of these apartment buildings that clearly may have been away from their homes. They're walking through it all. They're trying to track down apartment by apartment who lived there, how many people lived there, their identities and try and make sure they know where they are and that they are safe. Everyone is very hopeful, but I will tell you that until there's the final count, people are just holding their breath to see what the final situation is on the number of people on the ground, Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: Barbara, don't go anywhere. I have another question for you, but I want to jump in with someone who does live there, Matthew Edwards, who's an eyewitness. Mr. Edwards, Can you still hear me?</s>EDWARDS: Yes, ma'am, I can.</s>BANFIELD: I want to ask you about those who may be unaccounted for at this time. Do you know -- as Barbara just reported emergency services continue to comb through the area, going through the burning embers, going through every spot they can in the residences. Do you know anything about who's unaccounted for? Do you have idea who is still left to be found?</s>EDWARDS: I actually -- I have sort of an idea. We were speaking with our general manager Earl and we were doing a count of everybody, of all our neighbors. All of my neighbors and the neighbors across from me closest to the crash are pretty much accounted for. There is one older lady that I didn't quite hear about. But I'm pretty sure she's OK, because she was not home at the time. But I believe everybody got out. I think the only people that are really -- the only things that are really hurt are animals and buildings.</s>BANFIELD: And, Mr. Edwards, also we were looking at some pictures just a moment ago of what seemed like civilians and residents running in to help, to pull, you know, water hoses for firefighters. Can you tell me a little bit about the effort to join in and to sort of help in this crisis by bystanders?</s>EDWARDS: Absolutely. I personally put my hand on a hose and a firefighter asked me to help out and I personally, you know, carried things over to the scene. I mean, it was amazing to see all the people just standing and the fire department said one thing and 30 people must have stepped off the curb to help. We were pulling hoses, bringing blocks, whatever.</s>BANFIELD: Our thoughts are with you and your neighbors as you continue to try to find those I believe six now who may be unaccounted for. Certainly better than the 30 who were unaccounted for before. But, Matthew Edwards, thank you for your time tonight and for your perspective on this.</s>EDWARDS: Thank you. And thank you to those pilots. They really did their job.</s>BANFIELD: Yes, it sounds like it. Certainly, as the investigation continues, we will find out more about how that happened. Barbara Starr, thank you as well. You will continue to update us as you find new information as well I hope tonight, right?</s>STARR: You bet.</s>BANFIELD: All right. Barbara Starr joining us live from the Pentagon as well. Thanks to both of you. Up next, James Carville on today's tepid job numbers and the political fallout that that could cause for President Obama as he heads into full campaign mode for the fall.