VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- Shock and fear are palpable in breathless calls to 911:
"A Navy plane just went down on 24th Street!"
"It's not a terrorist thing, is it?"
"A pilot landed on my patio!"
Recordings of the calls were made public Monday, three days after an Oceana-based fighter jet dropped out of the sky and plummeted into Mayfair Mews, an apartment complex that was home to mostly seniors.
More than half of the 65 units were heavily damaged, but no one was killed or even seriously injured -- an astounding outcome that those closest to the crash clearly did not expect.
"The whole thing is on fire!" shouts one woman caller. "The blaze is terrible, and something keeps exploding! Oh my God... all those old people.... Oh my God, you need to hurry up and get help here!"
The city didn't say how many calls came in, but one recording tells the tale of an overwhelmed switchboard.
"It took forever for somebody to come on the durned line!" an annoyed woman complains.
"Ma'am," replies a level-voiced dispatcher, "we've got 47 calls in the queue to be answered."
Some reports did seem to catch the operators by surprise:
"A pilot is on your patio?"
According to time stamps on the recordings, the first call arrived at 12:05 p.m. Portions of that one aren't fit for a family newspaper:
"Holy (expletive)! The apartment building is completely destroyed!"
Voices vibrate with barely-held-back tears: "There's a ton -- just a ton -- of black, black smoke... just billowing and billowing out..."
Some are eerily cool, the hallmark of the well trained:
"We had an F-18 go down," says one man, reporting its concise location then explaining that the jet noise heard in the background is "a second bird overtop right now, probably giving his position back to NAS Oceana."
Others are haunted by the past, like the caller who worries she's witnessing a repeat of 9/11. A dispatcher tries to reassure her that this crash is an accident.
"Just a regular jet?"
"That's all we know right now, OK?"
Copyright 2012 - The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
McClatchy-Tribune News
