The pilots ejected with the plane aimed towards a residential area?

[emsimon33]

39. I grew up in that area of Virginia Beach

And the neighborhood where the jet crashed is very close to one of the runways. It is near the resort area of the Beach and is heavily populated. I don't think that the pilot had much choice given where it crashed. If he could have put it down in a less populated area, such as the Atlantic Ocean, which is about 5 blocks away but in a much different trajectory, I am sure that he would have.

One of the Navy's major concerns with the Virginia Beach City Council over the years has been neighbor encroachment on Oceana Naval Air Station, one of the largest such military air stations in the world. The noise from jets in many of the neighborhoods in Virginia Beach is deafening and a real problem, especially at the end of the month when the jets seem to fly 24 hours a day in order to use up the fuel allotment so that the fuel allotments are not reduced.

In fact, we JOKE that Virginia Beach is one of the few places in the US that people ask for surface to air missiles as gifts for birthdays and holidays (just joking--so please don't flame me--but the noise IS a real problem).

I pray that no one was hurt in the crash and that the pilots are safe. Navy pilots are consummate professionals and try in such situations as today's to avoid populated areas in a crash situation; however, in Virginia Beach, this is not always an option.

The mailbox UPS store where I get my mail is a little over a block from the crash site. I called to see if they sustained any damage. They didn't but said that the jet flew so close over the store that they thought they were goners.