Washington: A US Navy F/A-18D fighter crashed soon after take-off into an apartment complex in Virginia on Friday, sending fireballs into the sky, heavily damaging half-a-dozen buildings and injuring nine people.

All the injuries, including those to the F/A-18 crew, were minor, officials said, but the search of the Mayfair Mews apartment complex was not complete. Both crew members ejected from the aircraft before it crashed into the buildings in Virginia Beach, and one pilot was rescued while still strapped into his ejection seat.

Initial indications were the F/A-18D 'suffered a catastrophic mechanical malfunction' during a training flight, Navy Captain Mark Weisgerber said.

Thick black clouds of smoke billowed into the air as fire reduced the apartment buildings to a blackened shell. The Mayfair Mews complex was less than two miles from Naval Air Station Oceana, where the F-18D was based.

'I feel very blessed that we didn't find anyone (dead) in the first two buildings,' said Mayor William Sessoms on CNN. 'I don't know what to expect in the other buildings until they get into them.'

A volunteer rescuer, Pat Kavanaugh, told CNN he found one of the pilots in the wreckage, still strapped to his ejection seat with a parachute. Kavanaugh and neighbors picked up the seat and carried the pilot away from the flames.
Kavanaugh said the pilot 'apologized.