Pilots Safe as Navy Jet Crashes

Two Navy pilots parachuted safely from their F-14 Tomcat fighter jet today shortly before the aircraft crashed in an isolated area about five miles northeast of the Miramar Naval Air Station. Both pilots, who were not identified, were taken back to the base where they underwent routine examination by a doctor, a Navy spokesman said.

Witnesses said they saw two parachutes eject from the jet and then heard three loud explosions after it plummeted to the ground. About 60 firefighters from the San Diego Fire Department and State Forestry Department were summoned to the canyon area to battle a two-acre brush fire resulting from the crash, a Fire Department spokesman said. No cause for the crash was given immediately.