Last Updated on May 18, 2019 by CCAR Staff
Activity continued Saturday, May 18, on the Riverside-area street where an F-16 crashed Thursday, with an official saying the process of removing the jet from the area could begin Monday.
With the jet’s remaining fuel siphoned away and its weapons extracted and detonated Friday at a field two miles from the crash site, the challenge of extracting the nearly 20,000-pound aircraft from the commercial warehouse on Opportunity Way remained.
The obvious option, said Maj. Perry Covington, director of public affairs of March Air Reserve Base., would be to remove the jet the way it came in, through the gaping hole in the roof of the warehouse. Covington said disassembling the aircraft, a lengthy process, is another option.
“There’s different options we are looking at,” he said. The Air Force is working with Riverside County fire and law enforcement agencies, Caltrans and medical advisers to coordinate the operation.
Once the aircraft is removed, Covington said it would be taken back to March Air Reserve Base where investigators could inspect the jet to help determine the cause of the crash.
Crews continued to hose down the jet and surrounding area Saturday to prevent dust and debris from the crash to rise into the air.
People in government vehicles came and went through Riverside County sheriff’s roadblocks on Opportunity Way. Sightseers looked in, as well. Drivers were allowed to enter and leave the Opportunity Way gate of Sysco, which distributes food and other products and is near the crash site.
About midday, a sheriff’s deputy discussing the closure with a man, said “It could be an hour, it could be 10 hours. We don’t know.”
Covington said the Air Force has been working with the owners of the warehouse to try and provide space for employees to continue their day-to-day business.
A witness to the crash, Dan Cupido, said he overheard the pilot on the March tower radio frequency declaring an emergency because of hydraulics problems that can cause a loss of control of an aircraft. The pilot circled to burn off fuel before he ejected, Cupido said he heard.
That could explain the lack of a fire when the plane crashed into See Water and Bous Performance about 3:45 p.m. Thursday. Fire officials initially believed that the building’s sprinkler system doused a small fire, but Cal Fire Unit Chief Shawn Newman clarified Friday that there was no fire, and that there was a flood inside the shared building because a water pipe was severed.
Thirteen people, including the pilot, were hospitalized with minor injuries. Others, including six sheriff’s deputies, were treated at the scene for exposure to debris.
