CBS News

(CBS/AP) VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Two Navy pilots ejected from a fighter jet after dumping loads of fuel to avoid a major explosion Friday, sending their unmanned plane careening into a Virginia Beach apartment complex and engulfing several buildings in flames, officials said.

Seven people, including both pilots, were injured, officials said. The Navy said both aviators on board the jet ejected before it crashed around noon and were being taken to hospitals for observation.

Bruce Nedelka, the Virginia Beach EMS division chief, said that witnesses saw fuel being dumped from the jet before it went down, and that fuel was found on buildings and vehicles in the area.

"By doing so, he mitigated what could have been an absolute massive, massive fireball and fire," Nedelka said. "With all of that jet fuel dumped, it was much less than what it could have been."

The crash happened in the Hampton Roads area, which has a large concentration of military bases, including Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval base in the world. Naval Air Station Oceana, where the F/A-18D that crashed was assigned, is located in Virginia Beach.

Dozens of police cars, fire trucks and other emergency vehicles filled the densely populated neighborhood where the plane crashed. Yellow fire hoses snaked through side streets as fire crews poured water on the charred rooftops of brick apartment houses. By late afternoon, the fire had been put out.

Virginia Beach Fire Department Capt. Tim Riley said seven people were injured, including three who refused treatment. None, including the pilots, had serious injuries.

Crews had searched more than 20 units and were approaching the final six very carefully because of extreme structural damage. Riley said there was a slim chance anyone could have survived in those final units.

Residents of the apartment complex described a confusing scene and an apologetic pilot.

Pat Kavanaugh, a retired member of the Virginia Beach rescue team, says that one of the pilots landed on his back porch. He told CBS affiliate WKTR that he helped get the pilot to safety (See interview at left).

"He apologized very much for hitting our complex," said Kavanaugh, who added the pilot was in shock and had lacerations on his face.

Colby Smith said his house started shaking and then the power went out, as he saw a red and orange blaze outside his window. He ran outside, where he saw billowing black smoke and then came upon the pilot as he ran to a friend's home.

"I saw the parachute on the house and he was still connected to it, and he was laying on the ground with his face full of blood," Smith told WVEC-TV.

A multicolored parachute could be seen hanging from the roof of an apartment closest to the crash center.

As authorities closed roads in the neighborhood, traffic backed up on side streets and on nearby Interstate 264, with slow-moving columns of vehicles bringing drivers to a virtual standstill early Friday afternoon.

Edna Lukens, who works at the apartment complex across the street from the crash, said she saw three apartment buildings on fire.

"We heard this loud noise and we looked out the window and there was smoke all in the sky. Then the flames started going up in the sky, and then the apartment building just started burning and the police was called and everybody came out," Lukens said.

Felissa Ezell, 71, was sitting in a folding chair outside her townhouse near the crash site Friday and recalled hearing the crash as she returned home earlier in the day.

"Oh, my God, I heard three really loud explosions, then the black smoke went up high in the sky," she said.

The same model of fighter jet, an F/A-18D, crashed in December 2008 while returning to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after a training exercise in a San Diego neighborhood. That crash killed four members of one family and destroyed two homes.

The Marine Corps said the jet suffered a mechanical failure, but a series of bad decisions led the pilot — a student — to bypass a potentially safe landing at a coastal Navy base after his engine failed. The pilot ejected and told investigators he screamed in horror as he watched the jet plow into the neighborhood, incinerating two homes. A federal judge ordered the U.S. government to pay the family nearly $18 million in restitution.