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Did the pilots survive???
PORTLAND ? Two Navy F-18 fighter jets collided over the Columbia River in northeastern Oregon this afternoon, a Federal Aviation Administration official said.
FAA spokeswoman Nancy Corey said two parachutes were seen, but it wasn't clear whether the pilots had ejected safely.
One of the pilots landed in the river, while the other landed within Arlington city limits, according to Deputy Chris Fitzsimmons with the Gilliam County Sheriff's office.
Rescue personnel were en route to the crash, Corey said.
Witnesses reported hearing a "big boom," then seeing a fiery explosion in the sky, said Fitzsimmons, the agency's emergency management coordinator.
Fitzsimmons said debris from the planes landed as far away as Interstate 84, eight miles south of Arlington.
Yvonne Arbogast, a spokeswoman for the Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles, said she "did not know yet," whether the pilots would be sent to that hospital.
"They haven't arrived anywhere yet," she said.
The F-18 has either one or two seats depending on the version. It was first test-flown in 1978.
It is used by the Navy and Marine Corps and several countries including Canada, Australia, Spain, Kuwait, Switzerland, Finland and Malaysia.
In the American arsenal the F-18 replaced the F-4 Phantom II, the A-7 Corsair and the A-6 Intruder as those planes were phased out of service in the 1990s.
They are designed for air-to-air and air-to-ground combat.
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