Military Jet Slams Into Calif. Homes

An incredibly lucky escape in California: A military jet slammed into a street of tightly packed houses in the desert community of Imperial yesterday but there wasn't a single casualty. Officials say the pilot of the AV-8B Harrier jet from the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona, ejected safely and the crash is being investigated, reports the Los Angeles Times. After the crash stunned residents, neighbors rushed to damaged homes to make sure everybody got out.

The plane went down in a front yard, destroying two homes with debris and fire and badly damaging several others. The crash "felt like an earthquake," an 11-year-old boy who was two blocks away tells the AP. He says he rushed outside to see the pilot parachuting into a field about 200 yards away, and a "mushroom cloud of black and red smoke" over one of the damaged homes. (Last month, a pilot crashed into a home in Colorado—and discovered that he used to own it.)