Saturday, January 28, 2006

Crash in Ketchikan


So my brother's working in the shipyard down in Ketchikan. Wednesday he called and said he heard a jet unusually loud overhead and looked up. Just after he spotted the jet, he actually saw someone eject out of a fighter jet, the parachute never fully opened though because the pilot ejected to late. The jet crash landed into a trailer at a trailer park about 200 yards away from where Ian was working. Ian ran over to see if he could help and eventually ended up pointing the direction of the pilots location out for them. Unfortunately the pilot didn't make it. Amazingly enough nobody was killed in the trailer court and nobody was inside the trailer the jet actually ran into, I guess there were only minor injuries. I am just stunned that this happened and even more stunned that Ian actually witnessed it all.

Sitnews has a sad account on the story and some good pictures of the crash site.
KTUU has a story giving a better idea on the cause.

I guess the pilot sacrificed himself to steer the jet away from even more populated area's. It sounds like if he would have landed anywhere else in the vicinity it would have been much worse. My heart goes out to his wife and children.

3 comments:

Klondike Kate said...

That is sooo tragic! His poor family! What bravery!

prudhoeman said...

I feel for the poor pilots family.
I'm glad there wasn't anyone in the trailer that was hit.

FishTaxi said...

Its not every day your a witness to a plane crash.

I'm surprised and I wasn't even there.

Hope that kid, his dad and his grandma get a new trailer out of the deal.

That was one brave pilot.