What happened here?

[FlyingFortress]

Anybody know the story behind this crash at Quantico? Exactly what kind of F/A-18 is painted blue and white?

 

[zippy]

If I remember correctly, it is painted like that because it was/is going to be a stationary display somewhere. It was sitting on the flightline looking in good shape a few months ago. There were a bunch of rumors floating around about the incident, but for what did occur... happened sometime in the pattern, pilot ejected relatively safelty, plane seems to have survived relatively intact.

 

[E5B]

Aren't the NASA jets blue and white?

 

[squeeze]

its the CO's plane... 00 or 01 are typically painted up in the squadrons colors (ala pre-haze gray time)

 

[Whalebite]

Its sitting on LZ6 (the front pt field) here at TBS
There are still chunks of dirt in it

 

[KBayDog]

Because F-18s have SOOOOOOO much to do with TBS

Nice to see that the Wing is finally getting some representation.

 

[T-man]

Is it an optical illusion, or is that plane not full scale? It looks kinda small to me. Just curious

 

[Carno]

The hose guy is probably elevated, making the jet look smaller.

 

[Clux4]

It is aircraft #1 from decommissioned VMFA 321 at Andrews Airforce base MD. The CO of the Squadron was flying it when the accident happened. I think it was supposed to be kept in the museum on Quantico, but with the crash, who know.

 

[jarhead]

Anybody know the story behind this crash at Quantico? Exactly what kind of F/A-18 is painted blue and white?

question #1: yes

question #2: the Skipper's jet is usually painted in pretty colors

S/F

 

[Flash]

Here is a picture of a VMFA-321 bird painted up nice.

http://www.rdavp.com/Reports/Andrews 2004/Andrews_Photo09.htm