300,000 Watch in Horror as Fighter Crashes : Spectators Say F/A-18 Jet Appeared to Stall as Pilot Was Making a Loop

Lance Cpl. Andrew Tindor isn’t a pilot, but he’s been around military jets long enough to know when one is in trouble.

And Sunday, when the F/A-18 Hornet came racing out of the sun toward the cheering crowd at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, Tindor sensed that the $18.5-million aircraft wasn’t going to make it.

“He had made a loop, and he was closing in on completing the loop, coming in real low over the ground,” said Tindor, who is stationed at the Marine base but was there Sunday as a spectator. “When he was at the top of the loop he stalled, and as he came toward the ground you could tell he was going too slow. His tail hit the runway, and that was it.”

“He was supposed to do a simple loop and fly off into the sunset,” Tindor added.

Although investigators are still looking into the cause of the crash, which came before thousands of horrified fans at the 38th annual Navy Relief Air Show, witnesses said it did not appear to have been caused by mechanical problems.

Rather, several witnesses said that from their vantage point it seemed as if the pilot, who was critically injured in the crash, simply failed to properly maneuver the jet as it completed a wide loop at the northern end of the air base.

“It looked like he was trying to do too much, trying to push it,” said Cpl. Jason Keener, 21, who was sitting with Tindor when the jet fighter skidded across the runway in a cloud of smoke and sparks and settled in a grassy area near the base’s new control tower. “There was sort of a stall, and it was like he hadn’t pushed it enough to keep it off the ground. Once the tail hit, the whole plane kind of just plopped on the runway and starting skidding.”

San Clemente resident Julio Gavilanes, who was watching the show with his son, said it appeared that the pilot, later identified as Marine Col. Jerry Cadick, brought the plane down too close to the ground and with insufficient speed.

“It was like he couldn’t gain the speed he needed to complete the maneuver, and the plane kind of hovered over the ground with its tail pointed down,” he said. “Then it hit and skidded along the runway. We couldn’t see much after that because everyone stood up to see what was happening. All we could see was a lot of smoke.”

Marine officials said later that there was no fire and that the pilot had been pulled from the wreckage and rushed to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where he was listed in critical condition.

“It all seemed to happen so slowly,” Gavilanes said. “I didn’t think the pilot was even hurt because it happened so slowly. The plane was intact. It didn’t even appear to be damaged that much.”

Lan Vu, a 15-year-old student from Fountain Valley, was among the crowd of about 300,000 at the base when the crash occurred.

“The pilot looked like a real pro because he was making some outrageous maneuvers, but when he came on the last one, he was just too low,” Vu said.

“It was like he was landing without landing gears, and it looked like it just belly-flopped,” said his friend Craig Hurley, 14, also of Fountain Valley. “Everybody was kind of shocked and started leaning forward to see what happened.”

Statistics about the F/A-18 Hornet jet fighter: Speed--Mach 1.8 Length--56ft. Height--15.3 ft. Wingspan--40.4 ft. Combat ceiling--about 50,000 ft. Armament--Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles and a 20 mm. internal gun.