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Airshow Crash in South Carolina
Aired April 21, 2007 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: That would certainly be a much more -- a much more perilous situation, especially if there were people in the house at the time. We don't know that at this point. Here's what we do know, we've just been handed this piece of information, we've got a call in from a state trooper in the area there in Beaufort, South Carolina, he says, and we don't know if this is third person or not, he says, and I'll read you the direct quote, "I was told that he, the pilot, was alive. But I can't confirm that right now." This is information coming and I'm reading you the exact words that he shared with us, we're giving it to you this way so we can be as transparent as possible. He says, I was told that he was alive but I can't confirm that. He also goes on to tell us that right now the state troopers in the area are assisting by trying to reroute the crash site. You can imagine, Fred you were just on the phone a little while ago with one of the officials from the air show, they said there were what, thousands of people down there?
WHITFIELD: Right, that was from an eyewitness who was just out there appreciating the air show. But yeah, thousands of people, they had already blocked off roads because of the traffic because so many people had come from far and wide just to see this air show.
SANCHEZ: And here we have a discrepancy now, according to this state trooper, this is a little bit conflictive of the information you just shared with the viewers, he says, "We are assisting them by rerouting the crash site, which is said not to be around any house." Not to be around any house. That would be good news.
WHITFIELD: Sure.
SANCHEZ: Because we certainly -- you can imagine, with the fuel on board, with the impact, with the speeds at which they fly, the type of incredible fire that would probably be caused by an impact with any structure, be it a house, a building or anything else. So hopefully, that's the information that we can nail down for you real quick. Let me tell you just quick about the F-18. Prime contractor as you probably know is Boeing, it's a Northrop corporation, also a principal contractor on this. It has two GE F-404 GE 400 low bypass turbo fan engines. Folks that means it's a very strong machine. It does require a lot of fuel. They each have 16,000 pound thrust class. So it's a huge APG65 with long range detection in both head-on and tail- on aspects. The length of this plane is about 56 feet if you can picture that, 56 feet long. It's about 15 feet high, it has a wingspan of about 40 feet. And according to the information we were just pulling right off of the Blue Angels own website, it's about -- it's got a wing area of about 400 square feet. So that's a very large plane. WHITFIELD: Right. And you know earlier, we talked to Jacqui Jeras about the kind of conditions, the flying conditions, and we know, Jacqui, that at least according to our eyewitness accounts it was clear enough that they were able to see clear as a whistle the air show as it was taking place successfully and they were able to see the plumes of smoke that resulted when something went wrong. So again, describe for us what kind of weather conditions were taking place there out of Beaufort, South Carolina?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah Fred, there's nothing obvious weather wise that I can find right now that could have been a cause of this accident. And if that had been the factor, of course, that would be affecting the other planes. And those all seemed to turn out just fine. Winds are very light and variable, they've been kind of changing direction a little bit. But when you're talking about 3 to 5-mile-per-hour winds, that's certainly something any aircraft I think could handle. As for the sky conditions, it's been partly cloudy all day long. So three quarters of the sky is clear, certainly really ideal conditions for viewing for the public to see these planes and certainly ideal conditions to fly, not a lot of wind shear in the atmosphere. We've got winds in the upper levels coming in from a different direction, but I don't see how that could be a factor at this time.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much Jacqui.
SANCHEZ: Let's talk a little bit about the formation of the blue angels. A lot of people wonder, you know we see them at shows, they have a very good --
WHITFIELD: Its incredible shows.
SANCHEZ: I just called up their schedule, they're scheduled to be there in Beaufort today and tomorrow, as well. We don't know at this point if tomorrow's show has been or will be cancelled. But certainly that's one of the things we're going to be checking on. They were formed right after World War II, Admiral Chester Nimitz decided that it would really be an important recruiting tool, so he -- and a way of showing off naval operations. So what he did is he ordered the formation of a flight demonstration team to try and keep the public just interested in naval aviation. I remember, it was still somewhat at its infancy back then, you know compared to what it is now. It's certainly not like WWI, but certainly after World War II it was important to show off their wares. Blue Angels performed their first flight demonstration less than a year later, that was in 1946 by the way at their home base, and that's the naval air station there in Jacksonville, Florida, flying the Grumman F6 Helcap(ph), which then, of course, evolved into all the different types of planes that they've been using now.
But for those of you who are just joining us and are probably wondering what is the new information that we're getting, it's somewhat conflictive and we're getting two pieces of information, one that came in from one of the affiliates, one of the CNN affiliates there on the ground and this was the official -- the initial report that seemed to indicate that one of the planes, one of these F-18s used in this precise formation planes had gone down and it had gone down in a neighborhood. And that it had possibly even hit a house. Now we're getting different information, this coming from a state trooper, although he says his information -- he says it's not confirmed but he's telling us that, in fact, there was a crash, he thinks that the pilot was able to eject and he's saying it did not hit a house. So that's the information we're going with now. You have something Fred?
WHITFIELD: Well as they continue to locate this pilot or perhaps the crash site, we also are hearing some confirmation at least initially from hospitals in the area that they have not received any casualties, nor have been informed of any. But again, this is all happening just within the past hour so it's going to take some time for these emergency crews to get to the location of this crash site. Unless they are there already and clearly they've got their hands full and are unable to convey that publicly as of yet. But again, initial reports, according to our affiliate WSAV out of Savannah, which was there covering the air show, where quite a few thousand people were in attendance was that this one plane out of a formation of six went down. We don't know, again, about the pilot on board and that as a result of going down there were some homes in the area that also may have been struck and that there are reportedly fire. We haven't gotten confirmation from any kind of fire authorities on the ground but that's according to our affiliate WSAV. And right now that's kind of our life line to that area.
SANCHEZ: Let's do this, there's probably a lot of folks who are wondering just what this area looks like, where is it. For those of you not familiar with Beaufort, South Carolina, let's see if we can put a map up. Have you guys got there in the control room? As soon as we get that Google earth, there it is there. And what we're going to do is we're going to kind of try and just zoom in on it so you can see the area. Now just to the south you would be in Hilton Head, just south of that would be Savannah. It's a town that's a little bit inland of the Atlantic Ocean. Now you're looking at it as if you were looking from the Atlantic Ocean. That waterway you see there is the Broad River that comes through that area just above Hilton Head, South Carolina. And now we pull back, as if we're looking at it from the southeast. You see the area that the plane, as it was described by our witness, saying it came in off the Broad River. Most of the people, when they go to these air shows, and I'm sure many of you have gone to them yourselves, know that oftentimes some of the best vantage points is a lake, a lagoon, a bay, even the ocean itself. And oftentimes people are there with their boats because it gives them a wide view of what's going on.
There's the area that we're talking about. Again, that's a Marine Corps air station, a Marine Corps air station, not necessarily a marine base. That's where people had been gathering to see it and that's obviously where the touch and goes were performed, as well. Remember that when you have air shows like this it's usually not only the Blue Angels but other planes that are also doing demonstrations, as well. So there are probably a bevy of other planes and certainly a lot of people involved in that. So that's the area that we're talking about as we try and break down this developing story for you of a Blue Angels F-18 that has gone down in the area of Beaufort, South Carolina.
WHITFIELD: And the Navy Blue Angels have an incredible schedule. This is something that they do every year. They go on these tours across the country showing these incredible and remarkable air shows. This year alone, there's 66 scheduled shows. They weren't even a quarter of the way into their schedules, and they're traveling to 35 different locations across the country. Their scheduled air shows taking place this weekend and then they were going to be in another South Carolina location just a little over a week from now. But right now this really is an alarming and shocking report to come out, because their track record is remarkable, incredible. We're talking about some of the best, if not the best and brightest of precision air flying involving both the navy and Marine Corps talent who are able to execute these incredible shows.
SANCHEZ: Well, and I think one of the questions, also, that we hope to be able to soon get a pilot who can possibly join us and talk about something like this, certainly, there's a lot of military pilots out there that we have resources to talk to. And the question is, when you're in a situation as difficult as this, and you know that you're going to have to eject, how do you go through the decision- making process of making sure that even if you eject your plane does crash but crashes in a safe location so that citizens, civilians, as they're called by these pilots, are not injured or affected. And that's one of the things that we certainly need to know at this point.
WHITFIELD: Earlier I spoke with an eyewitness who was in a boat, on a waterway just like you described, as kind of the idyllic location to watch some of these air shows. Scott Houston described exactly what he saw a little while ago.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
SCOTT HOUSTON, EYEWITNESS: Actually we were just watching the show from a boat in the river. And at the end of the show there were six airplanes went down below the trees, and when they came up at the other end there were only five. And then a big cloud of smoke, and then one of the Blue Angels circled the area for about five minutes before he departed, and I guess landed there at Beaufort Air Station.
WHITFIELD: Do you recall, Scott, what kind of maneuvers you were seeing when you were eye witnessing the six aircrafts before suddenly you only saw five?
HOUSTON: Yeah, they were actually, it was the end of the show and we believe they were just preparing to go land. So they weren't doing anything in particular they were just flying in a close formation.
WHITFIELD: How long had you been watching them?
HOUSTON: We'd watched the whole show from about 1:00.
WHITFIELD: The span of time, like 30 minutes or 45 minutes of watching the show.
HOUSTON: Oh, the show lasted about 30 minutes.
WHITFIELD: Ok. And can you give me an idea of kind of the proximity, you guys were in a boat, how far away were you from what would be like the landing strip area or where the show originates?
HOUSTON: We were probably about a mile from the actual runway.
WHITFIELD: Did you hear anything when suddenly it went from seeing six aircraft to five?
HOUSTON: No, we didn't see -- we didn't hear anything. It just was a large cloud of black smoke came up from behind the tree line.
WHITFIELD: And then what about these fires on the ground that we understand that there are a number of homes. Can you give me an idea of the neighborhood or the area that these aircraft were flying over, densely populated or what?
HOUSTON: I have no idea whatsoever on the other side of the trees where we were, because you couldn't see anything and I'm not from this area. So I really couldn't tell you exactly what's there.
WHITFIELD: Ok. All right, Scott, where are you about now and what are you seeing?
HOUSTON: We're actually on our way home. We're in the boat, we're several miles away from the area.
(END OF AUDIO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, that was eyewitness Scott Houston giving us his best account just a little while ago of what he eye witnessed there. Now that we have learned that at least one aircraft of the Navy Blue Angels may have gone down there in the Beaufort, South Carolina area.
SANCHEZ: Take a look at this video here and you'll see just how close they come.
WHITFIELD: Inches.
SANCHEZ: To each other, right, as they fly these precision maneuvers. And they have one particular maneuver where they actually fly almost at each other. You've got one going above, one going below, there it is. And it's really a sight to behold if you've never seen it and you've always wondered just how they're able to make those maneuvers and do it time and time again. Of course they say practice makes perfect with just about everything else and we know that they're extremely experienced and that they practice this all year long. The question that comes to mind as we watch the maneuvers is what may have possibly led up to it. Was it simply a problem with the airplane at this point? Or was it quite possibly part of the maneuver itself? In other words, one plane may have affected the flight pattern of another. We don't know the answers to that question at this point but it's certainly one of the things that we -- we hope to garnish from -- from some of the folks that are there that we had talked to. If they had a close enough vantage point.
We can tell you the information we have right now, for those of you joining us, it's now about 13 minutes after the hour, 5:00 on the east coast, is that during a demonstration, during an air show in Beaufort, South Carolina, a F-18, part of the Blue Angels flight maneuver team has gone down, and there's conflicting information as to whether or not it happened in a neighborhood, whether it actually had affected a residence, or whether it happened away from that area. We know it's a military area. It's the Marine Corps air station there in Beaufort. There's one report that seemed to indicate that it may have been a house or a neighborhood. And there's another report coming in just a little bit later after that that it wasn't. So we're working to nail this down for you. Got a lot of good folks back there making a lot of phone calls and as we do we're going to be sharing that info with you.
WHITFIELD: That's right and our affiliate WSAV is there on the ground. They happened to be in attendance for the air show, that's our nearest affiliate. But of course we're working lots of other sources, as well. And as you can imagine of course the military bases there, and law enforcement have their hands full, emergency response. So they're unable to talk with us directly right now. But we're continuing to work those sources to see if we can get any more, better, up-to-date information.
SANCHEZ: Just for illustrative purposes let's go ahead and share with you what we were able to dig up just getting information from the air show itself there at the Marine Corps air station in South Carolina. This is what they had put out previous to the accident. And it says that the 2007 Marine Corps air station in Beaufort, they're calling it the Beaufort Air Show is going to take place April 21st and 22nd. And, of course, the top billing goes to the Blue Angels here, it's the Naval's flight demonstration squadron. They're scheduled to perform along with several other high caliber aerial demonstration teams and numerous civilian and military aircraft displays, as well, just as we had mentioned. Fred, you have something?
WHITFIELD: Yeah, we've been relying on a lot of eyewitness accounts, as well, people who are dialing in to let us know what they saw there on the ground. Among them, Fred Yelinek, he is an eyewitness to what took place. Joining us now on the phone, Fred, what did you see?
FRED YELINEK, EYEWITNESS: I was working on a pump in a yard across the street from the initial impact. And I heard the Blue Angels go over, about five minutes previously, in a full, tight formation, nothing unusual at all about that. And then four or five minutes later I hear them coming again, expecting to see pretty much the same thing. But, I didn't hear any strange noises, and then it was the crashing sound of pieces of the airplane coming through the trees in the yard across the street. And then a huge fire ball, maybe 200, 300 yards further on down.
SANCHEZ: You just said -- YELINEK: I grabbed my camera and I ran after it, and I'm about to send you 70-something pictures that were taken within the minutes of the crash.
WHITFIELD: Wow!
SANCHEZ: So Fred, let's just back up a little bit, the thing that I'm interested in that you said is that, a yard across the street. So, can you determine where the impact was and how close it was to any particular house?
YELINEK: The impact, the initial impact was with pine trees at almost the intersection of Pine Grove and Shanklin Road. The main impact of the airplane was about 300, 400 yards further to the northwest.
WHITFIELD: Is that a residential area?
YELINEK: It is a heavy density residential area.
SANCHEZ: So just to be sure, it sounds like the impact was with some pine trees, but then the debris scattered over a residential area? Am I hearing you correct?
YELINEK: Well, the debris started from the first impact with a pine tree, which was maybe 100 yards from my location. Part of the tree and the debris went through a house in that yard.
SANCHEZ: Hmm.
YELINEK: Then the main body of the airplane continued on about 300 more yards and hit about one city block further down at the intersection of Shanklin and Pine Grove Road. There's a lot of houses on all four corners of that intersection and there was a lot of fire at that intersection, and continuing thereafter.
WHITFIELD: And Fred, you mentioned that you took at least 70 images. Describe some of the images that you've taken.
YELINEK: Broken trees, houses with holes in them but no fire, fire, and pieces of the airplane that you could carry in your hand and no larger. It broke up into very small pieces.
SANCHEZ: Fred, I've got a couple of questions for you, but let's start with probably what is the most important question at this point and that is people on the ground. What can you tell us about your neighbors at this point? Were any of them directly affected or impacted?
YELINEK: Yes. The neighbor across the street from where I was stationed, the large pieces of tree, and I think some pieces of the airplane went through the side of her house and a big piece of tree came across her house into the yard. She was, of course, very shaken but unhurt.
SANCHEZ: What was -- has anyone -- YELINEK: Several people on the highway driving on the streets right there had either pieces of airplane or pieces of tree come through their windshield. Those people, of course, were very shaken, but unhurt.
SANCHEZ: So as far as you can tell at this point, and obviously there's a possibility that this could change, but as far as you could tell at this point, no one was injured by the crash?
YELINEK: As far as I could tell.
SANCHEZ: As far as people on the ground?
YELINEK: Again, I followed the debris field as far as I could taking pictures and didn't see any one damaged at that point. But I can't promise you that there weren't people further down the line that weren't hurt.
SANCHEZ: So Fred, what about emergency response teams that have now come to that area where you see all this evidence of debris? Are you seeing that kind of activity yet?
YELINEK: Yes, oh they arrived, it must have been eight to ten minutes from impact. The area was completely surrounded. The Blue Angels team themselves immediately returned and continued to circle at low altitude above the crash site. And they stayed until a helicopter arrived. The helicopter actually got there before the engines and rescue people but not very much before.
WHITFIELD: Can you tell from that helicopter --
YELINEK: This is only about -- as the crow flies this is only about a mile and a half from the Marine Corps air station.
WHITFIELD: And could --
YELINEK: Very close to the edge of the station.
WHITFIELD: And I'm sorry for interrupting you, Fred, and Rick. From that helicopter, when you noticed that helicopter arriving, could you see whether a cage or anything was dropped below any personnel to help retrieve anyone potentially the pilot?
YELINEK: No, didn't see any such activity at all.
SANCHEZ: Fred, let's try and nail down the exact location that you gave to us just a little while ago. I can only tell you how grateful we are for all the information that you're sharing with us right now. Let's go back to the specific site where you said the impact occurred. You said Pine Grove and Shanklin, is that correct?
YELINEK: That is correct.
SANCHEZ: All right, we put together a Google Earth map and actually located that intersection so we can show our viewers what that area actually looks like. Let's continue to go in. Remember, with Google Earth sometimes you can only go in so tight. Yeah, you're right, Fred. Boy I'll tell you there are a lot of trees. It's a heavily wooded area, but a neighborhood nonetheless, where a lot of people live, right?
YELINEK: Yes.
SANCHEZ: And we're looking at the area right there. You say, as I heard you describe, that the plane hit but then the fuselage kept going straight and continued for like another city block?
YELINEK: At least.
SANCHEZ: Do you know what happened at that point of impact? A block away from then Shanklin and Pine Grove?
YELINEK: I have pictures only about 150 feet beyond that intersection. And the wreckage continued on for at least 500 more feet. So I don't have any -- any personal knowledge of the final resting place of the aircraft itself.
SANCHEZ: What about the people who live in that final resting place of the aircraft itself?
YELINEK: I don't have any -- I don't have any information there. The houses did not look severely damaged. But, beyond where I could see, there is definitely a possibility of more carnage.
SANCHEZ: Do you know if the pilot ejected?
YELINEK: I do not know that at all. I did not see a pilot, and I pretty much have given you the whole story.
SANCHEZ: By the way, did you -- when you first looked up and started seeing it, you didn't actually see the plane? You reacted to the sound, correct?
YELINEK: Reacted to the sound of the first hit of the trees. The first impact was with the top of large pine trees.
SANCHEZ: Right.
YELINEK: And that impact was a strange sound, obviously but not necessarily a plane crash. I turned around at that noise, and that's when the enormous fireball and the earth shattering rumble hit and I was looking directly at that.
SANCHEZ: Tall pine trees, Fred, would you say? How high up were these pine trees? I imagine those are those big ones that we're accustomed to seeing down here in the south?
YELINEK: Yeah, 100 foot pine trees.
SANCHEZ: A hundred foot pine trees, so he was flying quite low then, obviously.
WHITFIELD: And Fred hold on one minute because we want to introduce a couple other things while we're talking to you. Number one, we did get an I-Report picture, we realize you are going to be sending us quite a few images of the crash site that you were able to get. Well here's an image of this precision flying that was taking place when all was going right. This I-Report coming from Daniel Able there, who was enjoying the show just before something went terribly wrong. Meantime, Miles O'Brien is on the line with us, as well. A pilot, someone who's very -- someone who's very experienced with, you know, crash sites, and with aviation. All of that, Miles O'Brien with us and Miles, we're going to continue to look at some of these pictures from Daniel Able that continue to come in of the activity that was taking place on the ground and in the sky, when all was going right. So, based on what you're hearing, Miles, what do you suppose this scene is like?
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's hard to say, Fredricka, with the little bit of information we have. And I suspect there probably is some videotape or some still images that would give us some additional information. But I think the first thing that would probably be lower on my list of possibilities would be the possibility of a collision, and for the obvious reason that there -- if there was a collision when they're flying ever so close together. You would very likely have two planes that were in trouble. And there's no indication of that. As you see from some of the file footage which you've been showing, the Blue Angels routine has four of them flying in close formation with two others, a solo and opposing doing additional maneuvers, opposition maneuvers. There's this sort of low afterburner approach on the crowd which kind of catches people by surprise. A lot of solo work in addition to this close, tight, tight formation coordination that the Blue Angels are well-known for. It's incredibly close flying and requires a tremendous amount of skill, obviously. And when you hear about a problem with the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds, one of the things you think about immediately is, you know, planes flying that fast, in such close proximity. But in this case, we may be headed down a different path.
SANCHEZ: Hey Miles, let me ask you a question, because boy, you certainly are an expert on this on planes in general and I know you've flown a lot yourself. What can you gather from the fact that it happened over a neighborhood like this? You know, you and I have been to these shows, we all have, and we've seen that they fly directly over neighborhoods. But I guess what I'm trying to get at here Miles, is if he had known that he was in any kind of trouble, wouldn't he have gone away from a residential neighborhood?
O'BRIEN: Well, the problem with this is, in a situation like this, Rick, is that the Blue Angels, in order to please the crowd, they fly at such low altitudes. And do their show low to the ground. So when things go wrong, there isn't a lot of time for a pilot to make that kind of an adjustment. Depending on what happens, it just may not have been enough time to glide or point the aircraft in a direction that could put it into a field or away from people on the ground.
SANCHEZ: He is able to eject, though, right?
O'BRIEN: Yes. SANCHEZ: Could you explain that process for us?
O'BRIEN: Well, I mean, the ejection systems on these U.S. military aircraft, these are the F-18, this is a twin engine, this is a sort of the main line, carrier based fighter attack aircraft for the U.S. Navy. Contains an ejection seat like all U.S. fighter and attack airplanes do. It's saved the lives of countless pilots over the years. And essentially what you're sitting on is not just a seat it's kind of a mini rocket ship. It's got a rocket motor right beneath it and when the pilot is in trouble, all he has to do is pull a lever ever so firmly, and out, the canopy gets blown off, that's the windshield, and the seat propels out, rocket propelled out to give him a comfortable distance between he and the aircraft, a parachute opens all automatically, the seat breaks away. All this happens without the pilot having to do anything but pull that ejection system. So it does -- it doesn't take much time for the pilot to make that decision or execute an ejection. And -- and these seats are designed for ejection scenarios where the plane is literally on the ground. Kind of situations where if something happened very close to the ground, the pilot could still survive.
SANCHEZ: What can you tell us about the fuel, and what we would expect to see after an impact like this with the fuel on that plane?
O'BRIEN: Well, jet fuel, jet-a fuel is basically kerosene and in many respects is less flammable than what you would get from the unleaded gas you put in your automobile. But, you know, a lot depends on how much fuel is inside. I mean, one thing about a jet fighter, a fighter attack aircraft, it is a very thirsty animal, indeed and sucks up fuel very quickly. Typically, these airplanes, without refueling capability, unless they have extended range tanks attached, which they can do, you know --
SANCHEZ: Hey Miles, I'm going to interrupt you for just a moment because the Beaufort County Coroner's office has just told us right now, 28 minutes past the hour of 5:00 that they are confirming one person dead. Don't know if it's the pilot. Don't know if it was a person on the ground. All we're learning at this point is that there was one person deceased at this point, this, again, according to the Beaufort County Coroner's Office.
WHITFIELD: Right, that's all we know from that source right now. Miles, why don't you continue with your thought, let me ask you as you were talking about -- too, once you finish your thought about ejection, is there, a minimum distance from the ground or elevation in which an ejection, you know, procedure can take place?
O'BRIEN: No. As a matter of fact, the seats are designed for literally they don't even have to be off the ground. The rocket motor inside there propels the pilot far enough in the air away from the craft, and gives enough altitude for the parachute to open up, that in theory, they could survive that kind of thing. It's obviously a lot of things have to happen correctly but that's exactly what it's designed to do. So depending on how low they are, there's a lot of sequence of events that have to occur here. And it just depends on how quickly the pilot realizes he's in trouble. It might have been a situation where he didn't have enough time to even make a decision to eject.
SANCHEZ: You know, it's interesting, we were just talking to an eyewitness there on the ground, Miles. I think you may have heard his description. He said what he saw was the plane clipped tall pine trees, after clipping the tall pine trees it continued on seemingly in fuselage form for about another city block until making impact further down its own route. What does that tell you?
O'BRIEN: Well, this is the thing about air show flying.
And I've talked to a lot of air show performers, and they will tell you that, you know, what really separates the real pros from people who just have an idle interest in aerobatics is how close to the ground all this occurs. And how these maneuvers, they bottom out with very little margin.
And depending on what they're doing a lot of times they're going towards the ground, flying to the ground and they don't see it until they're perhaps coming too close, until it's too late.
That's why they have to make sure to have the altimeter, the device which tells them how far they are off the ground, is properly set, calibrated. They've got to watch that.
And the other thing to remember is, too, you know, typically what happens when you're flying in that knot formation, flying in a cluster, there's only -- everybody's following the leader. You're just looking at the wing next to you. The pilot next to you and you're trying to stay in close proximity to that pilot.
And so you're -- you're -- you're constantly following that leader. And the leader's role. In the case of the solo pilot, they're out on their own and they have less of a point of reference. And so, depending on the maneuver, and there is this -- they do this kind of low pass, high-speed surprise approach on the crowd, and I've seen it done many times and every time it happens, people are startled by it. And that's the whole idea. They sneak up on you.
WHITFIELD: And that's part of the thrill. I think we've all enjoyed that when we see these air shows. And Miles, let me just interrupt you for a moment. Michael Frazier was an eyewitness to the accident. So perhaps, Michael, your eyewitness account can help fill in some of the blanks as we wonder about the elevation of when this plane went down, whether the pilot may have ejected. All of that. Michael, what did you see?
MICHAEL FRAZIER, WITNESS (on phone): We were actually walking back to the vehicle and the plane, the five planes actually went to a clover leaf, and then they went their separate ways and when we were walking back to the car my wife said there's only five planes and we see a cloud of smoke and that's when we proceeded to think that something was wrong. At that point the emergency vehicles came by, and we see the medevac helicopter go by, as well, and the fighter plane kept coming back and circling around, circling around, and that's when we knew something was wrong.
There was only one plane involved. The other five were coming in for a landing, they were finished with the show. The announcer said they're about ready to finish and land and that's when we headed back to the vehicle to look at all this, and just sitting there now we're driving away from there. There's no smoke and we saw the medevac helicopter actually head north about 45 minutes ago.
SANCHEZ: What did the announcer say to the crowd after the crash?
FRAZIER: The announcer actually said that -- the only thing that we heard was the word "regret" something, and we were actually in the vehicle at that point and we could not hear them because we were away from the airstrip itself. Too far away to hear.
SANCHEZ: So they made some kind of statement, you overheard the word "regret" but you can't tell us exactly what was said.
FRAZIER: The only thing that I can confirm is they said regret. That's correct.
SANCHEZ: We appreciate you sharing that with us. How far away were you from the actual crash, just to try - we're going to try and pinpoint different people we talk to this evening to try and be able to really ...
FRAZIER: Oh, I'd say we were within a half a mile of it. There's no doubt.
SANCHEZ: And you're saying it happened at the end of the show?
FRAZIER: It was definitely at the end of the show. We were right there at the station itself, at the show.
SANCHEZ: In other words you had already seen the Blue Angels flying around in formation, et cetera?
FRAZIER: Correct.
SANCHEZ: They had been up there for quite some time? You know, that's important, because miles just mentioned, Miles O'Brien being on the air with us here, had just mentioned moments ago, Miles, I don't know if you can pick up on this, but you had just said these things are -- are real goes gas hogs. I don't think that's the word you used. But if he'd been up there for quite some time that would be good news wouldn't it?
FRAZIER: It would be good news, that's correct. They were up there for like awhile.
SANCHEZ: Thanks, Michael. Miles go ahead, you pick that up as well.
FRAZIER: Yeah, clearly the longer they were up there the less fuel that would be on board that airplane. And that would minimize any possible fire that might occur afterward.
I'm not -- where I'm standing right now -- I'm not able to see the wreckage site. Is there much evidence there of a fire?
SANCHEZ: We haven't actually gotten those pictures in. We're trying to get those pictures in right now. We haven't seen pictures from the scene. They were described as it was described to us a moment ago by one of the witnesses, Fred ...
WHITFIELD: Witness Fred (ph) ...
SANCHEZ: Was not a lot of fire. In fact he said that he saw holes in buildings. He saw parts of a lady's roof, et cetera. So it sounds like it was more of a collision impact than it was a fiery impact.
O'BRIEN: Yeah, as you say toward the end of that performance, typically the tanks are pretty close to dry. They've pretty much used the full amount of fuel that they -- they have on hand in the course of that performance.
WHITFIELD: Miles.
And Michael Frazier before we lose you, because we understand you're going to have to go, is there anything that you might be able to add to what you eye-witnessed out there today, after watching what seemed to be a successful show until the end?
FRAZIER: It was a very successful show. There was nothing that we saw out of the ordinary. This is the first time we had actually experienced seeing this, and it was quite an air show. They did a fabulous job. There was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary. Their maneuvers were unbelievable. They were very close. And they did a wonderful job.
WHITFIELD: Michael Frazier, thanks so much for your time. And miles, when we talked to an eye witness, one of the first eyewitnesses who was actually watching the show from a boat on the river, he said that he had been watching the show for a good 30 minutes before suddenly he noticed one of the planes was missing, as they kind of came in formation over a canopy of trees.
So all of this seems to be very consistent with those eyewitnesses who have been able to watch the entire show, that a good amount of time elapsed before something went terribly awry toward the end. And what's a clover leaf that Michael described, Miles? Do you know what that means?
O'BRIEN: Well, think of a clover leaf intersection on an interstate. Essentially what they do, the planes go in all directions, and the idea is to meet right at the center, right over the runway, right where the crowd is, at -- all at the right moment, at different altitudes, of course, because you don't want there to be a collision.
But that's how the clover leaf works. It's kind of they all go different points of the compass and swing back in. It's a big, it's obviously an important timing play and all the radio is trying to coordinate their time and their turns just right and speed and everything. And you have to account for the wind. It's an amazing, amazing game of precision.
And you know what, the Navy likes to say and what the Air Force says about the Thunderbirds, as well, which is the Air Force demonstration team, which flies f-16s, what they like to say, and the point that they try to make, is that these are maneuvers that anybody in the Navy aviation or in the United States Air Force could be trained to do. They are brought in to tight, tight formation, and this amazing sequence and synchronicity over a very slow period of time, over long periods of time of practice.
And this builds up confidence, and also gets the team working as a team. And obviously, you can imagine, given the split-second nature of this it's so important that coordination be right on target.
SANCHEZ: Let's do this for our viewers now, there's might be some folks who have just been joining us in the last several minutes or so. So, since it's just a few minutes past the half hour, let's do a reset for you.
Here's what's going on right now. In Beaufort, South Carolina, there was an air show there at the Marine Corps Air Station. And during that air show, one of the Blue Angels, planes, has crashed. It crashed, now we can say, because we have confirmed after talking to several witnesses on the ground there, that, in fact, it happened in a neighborhood that is heavily populated, it has hit apparently several houses, according to one of the witnesses that we spoke to, and that the original impact was with a tall pine tree, 100 or several hundred feet tall like many of those that most of us are accustomed to seeing when we drive through parts of Georgia, Alabama and the Southeast United States.
After clipping the tree, the plane then continued or at least a large part of the plane, most likely its fuselage, at least another city block. Also affecting other houses in the area.
The preliminary information we have, and this is from an eyewitness, as well, there on the ground, is that no one was specifically injured by the collision itself. Now this, again, is not officials telling us this information. This is just one person on the ground who was on the ground also had a camera and is getting ready to send us some of these pictures so we can see what the impact actually looked like.
So that's the information we're getting.
WHITFIELD: Except that we must mention again that the Beaufort County coroner's office is confirming at least one fatality. But we don't know the circumstances of that fatality as of yet.
SANCHEZ: It could be the pilot. It could be someone on the ground. We don't know again if the pilot ejected. We did have one report, let's see if I can find that piece of paper. We did have one original report and this came from a state trooper in the area, saying, his words, and I'll read it directly just to be as transparent as possible for you, he says, quote, :"I was told that he was alive. I was told that he was alive."
So obviously there's third person information. "But I can't confirm it."
We only bring you that because at this point we don't know whether the pilot has survived or not. As we continue to muster through this information we'll be sharing with you a lot more.
WHITFIELD: We're going to take a short break right now. When we come back we're going to be joined by our own Kyra Phillips who recently got a chance to fly with the Navy Blue Angels. She right now is on assignment in Baghdad. But we've got her on the line. We're going to take a short break but we'll hear from her about what that experience has been like and the kind of precision and training that these men and women go through in order to do this kind of maneuvering. We'll be right back.
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WHITFIELD: Hello again, I'm Fredricka Whitfield along with Rick Sanchez here. We're following what is turning out to be a tragic story taking place out of Beaufort, South Carolina. The Beaufort County coroner's office is confirming at least one fatality now as a result of an accident that has occurred at a Navy Blue Angels air show there.
This air show had been going on about 30 minutes when eyewitness accounts, we've heard from various people within the past hour and a half, talk about what they saw, they saw a formation of six F-18 jets, then suddenly there was only five.
And then we heard from an eyewitness who described actually seeing the accident, or at least portions of the accident, seeing what appeared to be the plane broken up into many pieces. He said no pieces bigger than what you can hold in your hand. All careening down on a densely populated residential area.
Again, we don't know anything more about the fatalities. Just that the coroner's office there is confirming at least one fatality as a result of this crash. And we still don't know the conditions, or whether this pilot was able to eject from this F-18. We're continuing to get whatever information we can about the crash site location and about the air show.
SANCHEZ: You could imagine how dramatic it is to be there on the ground, looking at this. Now, imagine actually being on the plane itself. What they call warp speed when this thing goes through the heavens.
Kyra Phillips has been really doing yeoman's work for us in Baghdad, really some unbelievable reports that she's been filing for us. Now she's in Amman, Jordan. We reach her by phone because we know that she is one of those who has actually flown on one of these planes with the Blue Angels and she's good enough to talk to us now to give us some perspective on this.
Kyra, first of all, thanks for joining us.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, no problem, Rick.
SANCHEZ: What's this -- what's it like to actually be on one of these planes as it's zooming through the heavens?
PHILLIPS: Well, first of all, you know, it's the middle of the night in Amman, Jordan, so i just got this call and I will start, obviously making calls because I know a number of those pilots. And even the former Blue Angels, and something like this, I have to tell you, Rick, I mean I am shocked. And definitely devastated hearing this news. Because this is something that just doesn't happen within the Blue Angels. I mean the training is so intense, and they are -- they pay attention to detail, and yes, I mean, it is incredible to -- to fly in a Blue Angels show. And I had the opportunity to do that. And you are so close, and -- and every second is so crucial as you're talking on the coms because of the way you're flying and the maneuvers that you're doing.
But they practice and they go over this time and time again. And so for something like this to happen, something either went wrong with that aircraft, or the other possibility is they were off in that maneuver just by a couple of seconds, and it's possible he could have hit another aircraft.
SANCHEZ: Yeah, although at this point, the information that we're getting, at least from one of the witnesses there on the ground, and I don't know if you were listening as the witness was telling us that he had clipped a tall pine tree, and then continued going down that path there.
I'm wondering, Kyra, when you're on this plane, and it's going so low to the ground, did you personally, as, you know, just as a layman like the rest of us, have a tough time with just, A, the fear factor, and B, the physical -- the -- what was going on in your body as the plane was going at that speed?
PHILLIPS: Well, I've been lucky in the training that I've done and the flying that I've done, that I have the body that can sustain the G-force, and -- and can take these type of maneuvers. And so, for me, it's never been fearful, or it's never made me ill in any way. And that's how it is for these guys.
I mean, physically and mentally, you have to be top of your game. I mean, it is the best naval aviators in the Navy that are selected to be a Blue Angel. I mean, not only are they the cream of the crop with regard to flying, but personally, I mean, they have to go through so much and so many background checks.
I mean they have to be a top individual emotionally, personally, professionally, so, if, indeed, these reports are correct, and that plane clipped a tree, I mean, I will be shocked, because they go over these shows and they pay attention to those kind of details. But, nobody is perfect. And so it's possible that when you're doing low- level flying, that you could -- you could do something like that. You could clip a tree, or come close to another aircraft. But, boy, I mean the odds of that are so low.
SANCHEZ: And we probably shouldn't preclude mechanical at this point, either. Just because we don't have enough information to know yet. Oftentimes, you know, Miles, your colleague would say you never know whether it's pilot error, mechanical error, and at this point we just don't know.
PHILLIPS: Absolutely. And the possibility of it being a -- of something going wrong with that aircraft. It's interesting, because just knowing the history of this team, and knowing what they go through, and knowing how they check those jets, and knowing how they train, I mean, this is, it's pretty unbelievable that something like this would happen.
WHITFIELD: Well, Kyra, if you wouldn't mind just sticking around just for a minute. We're going to take a short break and on the other side of the break we're going to resume our conversation. Perhaps you can reveal a little bit more about the kind of training that these pilots have to endure in order to become these kinds of top notch Blue Angels. We're going to take a short break right now. We'll be right back.
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SANCHEZ: Rick Sanchez here with Fredricka Whitfield. We do have some breaking news we're following for you. It has to do with a plane crash that's taken place in Beaufort, South Carolina. Most affected one of these, one of the Blue Angels that flies in formation. One of them has crashed in a residential neighborhood.
According to witnesses it was a pretty severe crash, with the plane really breaking up into pieces after first hitting what was described as a tall pine tree. The coroner's office there in Beaufort is confirming that, in fact, one person is deceased. We don't know who that person is. We don't know if that person was someone on the ground or in fact the pilot.
WHITFIELD: And it's hard to know exactly what went wrong and why at this juncture, because according to eyewitness accounts, they've been watching the show about 30 minutes, and the show was just about over, when suddenly six planes became five. Daniel Able is one of our I-Reporters out there who's been sending us images of when everything was going right during this air show taking place there in Beaufort, South Carolina, where thousands of people had converged to enjoy the precision, the acrobats of this team of fliers.
You're looking at the pictures right now while they were in formation. You can see there on the ground, the crowds of folks. And there's so many different kinds of maneuvers that they do. Sometimes they pair up. Sometimes you see four units. Sometimes you see all six.
SANCHEZ: And by the way, that's what people do when they go to these air shows, they take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. They take their kids, they take their families. It's something that's usually planned by people. They go each and every year and they take a lot of the pictures like the ones you're looking at there.
Now as you look at these pictures you'll note one thing, really hardly a cloud in the sky. Looks like a lot of blue skies.
WHITFIELD: These are now file pictures. But in the still photographs.
SANCHEZ: The still photos we were just seeing. Still looked like a very generally a clear day. Let's go to Jacqui Jeras. There's the pictures again. Looks like a beautiful day in South Carolina along the Southeast. But you hear about these things like wind shear and stuff that we know less about than you do, Jacqui.
So bring us up to date. Is there any possibility that there could have been any, perhaps, wind effect on a day like this that would have had an impact on the crash?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I really don't see anything. I was looking at the Doppler radar. I little sea breeze went through. Overall, winds very, very light. Coming in out of the Southeast. You know, three to five miles per hour. There you see those pictures, just very few clouds. Partly cloudy skies and it's really been that way all day.
Relative humidity is extremely low, so the air is dry. There is, you know, very little obscuring anything, actually, a beautiful day to get out there and watch a show like that. I'm sure there are a lot of people that just because of the weather wanted to go out and catch the show. I don't see anything -- there's certainly nothing obvious out there where weather could have been an issue.
SANCHEZ: Jacqui Jeras our meteorologist following the situation. Always good to ask. We thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, eyewitnesses have been generous with information. Gerald Popp is one of the witnesses we spoke to a moment ago. This is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERALD POPP, WITNESS: And as he turned, you know, that's their normal flight route in this area, I just seen him go down lower than the trees, and the next thing I seen was a big, black, you know, cloud of smoke.
And my neighbor across the street, he has a -- a scanner, and his son is one of the fire departments, he came out and said one of the Blue Angels was crashed. Near or in a residential neighborhood.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So again, that was from eyewitness Gerald Popp. And we've since learned from Beaufort County coroner's office at least one fatality as a result of this crash that has taken place there during this air show, with the Navy Blue Angels. Still unclear exactly what happened. Unclear whether the pilot was able to eject. We don't know anything more about that reported fatality. But of course we continue to work our sources.
SANCHEZ: And that's exactly what we're going to be doing for you over the course of the next three or four hours. We expect to not only be able to get more information, but more sound from the people we talk to, and pictures from the area that's being affected. Some of the folks there in the neighborhood say they immediately shot some videos, shot some photographs and they're going to be sharing them with us. We'll be, obviously, sharing them with you. I'm Rick Sanchez.
WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks for being with us. More news as it happens.
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