The Sky is Falling in San Diego

Yesterday an F/A-18 military jet crashed into a neighborhood in San Diego. I was shocked to read this in the local Swedish paper because it takes more than just tragedy to make the news around here. The angle was of course Top Gun, the movie and the fact that the school exists (or at least existed) in reality. Top Gun was for training the elite naval aviators, and now Miramar is a Marine base, not Navy, so I'm not sure if they're now training elite marine aviators there instead.

Even though I don't live there anymore, I feel like this hits close to home. I always liked the military aircraft, especially the fighter planes. The first house we owned in San Diego was near Miramar, and I enjoyed watching the planes. Even when I was in college, I would make a point of enjoying the planes. I would go to the airshow almost every summer, or at least to someplace in the vicinity where I could have a good vantage point to watch the finale, the Blue Angels. I even liked the movie Top Gun. It was one of the first I bought on video tape, even though I'm not much of a Tom Cruise fan. The planes overhead would make me feel proud and safe. The best of the best were watching over me.

That one of these planes crashed into a neighborhood, killing people and destroying homes, is truly unfortunate. There is quite a bit of open space on Miramar surrounding the runways to provide a buffer for just this reason. What a shame that these planes will no longer evoke a feeling of safety.