CNN had some excellent video pictures of this accident on TV
 Stealth fighter crashes into homes injuring four on the ground
     MIDDLE RIVER, Md. (September 14, 1997 7:33 p.m. EDT) - An F-117
 stealth fighter performing at an air show crashed into two houses
 shortly after takeoff Sunday, setting both homes on fire and causing
 four minor injuries on the ground. The pilot ejected safely.
     The plane went down about 3:30 p.m. after taking off during a
 performance at the Chesapeake Air Show at the Glen Martin State
 Airport, said Baltimore County Fire Capt. Steve Gisriel.
     Gisriel said the plane, carrying 11,000 pounds of fuel, crashed
 into two houses and burned two cars at a condo-marina complex on
 Chesapeake Bay in this suburb northeast of Baltimore. He said a man
 and three women at the complex suffered only minor injuries and were
 not hospitalized. The pilot was also treated at the scene for minor
 back and neck injuries.
    Sharon Schuchardt was watching the air show from a boat and wit-
 nessed the crash.
    "The plane was flying over and the tail end just blew off," she
 told CNN. "At first we thought it was part of the act.  All of a
 sudden, the plane just started going down."
     "It's something nobody in their lifetime would ever want to
 experience," she said. "It was horrible. It was huge, a total
 explosion."
     Another witness, Kimberly Chaapel, also noticed "part of the
 wing fell off" before the plane went down and the pilot ejected.
     "He started rolling head over tail and (the pilot) ejected
 probably 500 feet before the ground," she said. "He was very,
 very lucky."
     Air Force spokesman Capt. Byron James confirmed that the F-117
 went down and that the pilot ejected, but had no other information.
     Gisriel said the fire was under control about an hour after the
 crash and a three-block area of the complex was being evacuated for
 military officials to conduct their investigation.
     The boomerang-shaped F-117 Nighthawk, armed with laser-guided
 bombs, was used in the Gulf War against the most heavily defended
 Iraqi targets because of its ability to evade radar and radar-guided
 missiles. According to an Air Force fact sheet, each F-117 costs $45
 million.
     Stealth technology uses curved or angular surfaces to reduce
 that radar reflection -- known as a cross section. When combined
 with radar absorbing composite materials, a plane with a 43-foot
 wingspan displays the cross section of a bumblebee.
--- DB 1.39/004487
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