Blue Angels pilot dies in crash into neighborhood

A pilot with the Navy’s Blue Angels precision flying team was killed Saturday when his jet crashed into a residential neighborhood during an air show.

Witnesses said six F/A-18 Hornets were flying in formation during the show at the Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station about 4 p.m. when one dropped below the trees and crashed, sending up clouds of smoke.

Raymond Voegeli, a plumber, was backing out of a driveway when the plane ripped through a grove of pine trees, dousing his truck in flames and debris. He said wreckage hit “plenty of houses and mobile homes.”

“It was just a big fireball coming at me,” said Voegeli, 37. “It was just taking pine trees and just clipping them.”

Witnesses said metal and plastic wreckage -- some of it on fire -- hit homes in the neighborhood, located about 35 miles northwest of Hilton Head Island. William Winn, the county’s emergency management director, said several homes were damaged. Eight people on the ground were injured.

The crash occurred in the final minutes of the air show, said Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Walley, a Blue Angels pilot.

The jets were doing a maneuver that involved all six joining from behind the crowd to form a delta formation, said Lt. Cmdr. Garrett D. Kasper, spokesman for the Blue Angels.

Walley said the name of the dead pilot was being withheld pending the notification of relatives.

“Our squadron and the entire U.S. Navy are grieving the loss of a great American, a great naval officer and a great friend,” Walley said.

Kasper said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

John Sauls, who lives near the crash site, described the event as “one of those surreal moments when you go, ‘No, I didn’t just see what I saw.’ ”

The Blue Angels fly F/A-18 Hornets at high speeds in close formations, and their pilots are considered the Navy’s elite.

The last fatal Blue Angel crash occurred in 1999, when a pilot and crewmate were killed while practicing for air shows at an airbase in Georgia.

The elite team, which is based at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida, recently celebrated its 60th anniversary.

Kasper said the team would return to Florida on Sunday. “We will regroup,” he said.