Marine jet takes roof off house, no one harmed

IMPERIAL, Calif. – A Marine jet crashed into a residential area in a Southern California desert community Wednesday, hitting at least one house and setting at least two on fire, but no one was injured, authorities said.

Despite the explosive crash into a row of tightly spaced houses, 1st Lt. Jose Negrete said no people on the ground were hurt. The pilot had ejected safely and was taken to a hospital only for evaluation, Negrete said.

The Harrier AV-8B went down at 4:20 p.m. PDT in Imperial, a city of about 15,000 near the U.S.-Mexico border about 90 miles east of San Diego.

The house that suffered the brunt of the damage had a missing roof but still had walls and windows intact.

Christopher Garcia, 11, was watching television two blocks away with his father and brother when he heard an explosion that “felt like an earthquake.” He hurried outside to see a pilot parachuting into a field about 200 yards from the crash.

“A mushroom cloud of black and red smoke” rose above the house with the collapsed roof, he said. The garage of the house next door was on fire.

He saw a woman crying outside, saying, “That’s my house!”

Adriana Ramos, 45, whose home is less than a block from the crash, said her “whole house moved.”

“It felt like a bomb was thrown in the backyard,” Ramos said.

Ramos fled with her 4-year-old granddaughter and 10-year-old daughter, who both cried at the sight outside.

Another witness, Jose Santos, was driving nearby and saw the plane flying “really low.” Then “it just fell down,” he said.

The plane was from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona, said Cpl. Melissa Lee, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. She had no details about what might have caused the accident.

This was the second crash in a month of a Harrier jet from the Yuma air base.

On May 9, a pilot was able to eject safely before his jet crashed in a remote desert area near the Gila River Indian Community, south of Phoenix. No one was injured.