Quote:
Originally posted by Fabuleux
Any news on the pilots?
|
Only report I see that mentions casualties:
Two Navy Pilots Killed In Midair Collision
By Fisher News
PORTLAND -
Two military jets crashed into the Columbia River in Eastern Oregon Wednesday afternoon.
The FAA says two Navy F-18 fighter jets crashed around 2:30 p.m. near Arlington Oregon.
Those jets are based out of Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego and the fighter group is in Portland on a training mission.
Witnesses told KATU that they heard a loud explosion and many others saw a fireball above the river before the fighters tumbled into the water.
"We saw an explosion and a boom, and we saw a plane coming down in flames," said one witness.
Witnesses also told KATU they saw multiple parachutes in the sky after the crash.
"One man parachuting, something like a canopy spinning in the sky, to the east of that I saw another man parachuting, " said Amanda Wilson, the wife of an Arlington Sheriff's Deputy. "I do know that one man landed on the Oregon side of the Columbia River, and another one landed in Arlington, and another one landed on the Washington side of the river."
The crash happened east of the Navy's test bombing range five miles southwest Boardman.
Although the site was decommissioned in 2000, some planes continue to use the low level flight routes in the area.
The site features mobile targets for practice by Navy jets, particularly those out of Whidbey Island in Washington.
(Reporters from our sister station in Portland, KATU, contributed this report.)