Blue Angels
Beaufort, South Carolina
This AP Photo by Mark Almond (MAGS OUT, TV OUT, NO SALES) shows the US Navy Blue Angels performing their last maneuver before Blue Angel No. 6 (plane just above center) crashed during an air show at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, S.C., Saturday, April 21, 2007. Blue Angel No. 6, one of two solo pilots crashed two minutes after this picture was made about four miles west of the base as the team was setting up for its final maneuver.
Witnesses said the planes were flying in formation during the show at the Marine Corps Air Station at about 4 p.m. and one dropped below the trees and crashed, sending up clouds of smoke.
On Yahoo! News, Raymond Voegeli, a plumber, said he was backing out of a driveway when the plane ripped through a grove of pine trees, dousing his truck in flames and debris. He said wreckage hit "plenty of houses and mobile homes."
"It was just a big fireball coming at me," said Voegeli, 37. "It was just taking pine trees and just clipping them."
Witnesses told the Associated Press that metal and plastic wreckage — some of it on fire — hit homes in the neighborhood, located about 35 miles northwest of Hilton Head Island. William Winn, the county emergency management director, said several homes were damaged. Eight people on the ground were injured.