Desert Sun staff and wire reports

Military personnel, on Friday, successfully recovered all armaments from a crashed F-16 fighter jet that went through the roof of a warehouse a day earlier near March Air Reserve Base in Moreno Valley.

Authorities also reopened Interstate 215 between Alessandro and Van Buren boulevards, as well as the section of Van Buren east of the interstate leading up to the air base. The freeway had been closed for more than 12 hours as a result of the crash.

Metrolink tracks paralleling the freeway were also reopened in time for weekend service along the Perris Valley Line.

The investigation into why the plane, whose pilot was on a training mission for the North American Aerospace Defense Command, went down Thursday a short distance from the base was continuing.

The armed F-16 Fighting Falcon, reportedly attached to the 114th Fighter Wing Air National Guard unit based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, went down about 3:45 p.m. and crashed into the See Water Inc. warehouse at 22220 Opportunity Way, near Meridian Parkway, in the Arnold Heights neighborhood just off of Interstate 215.

The crash sent the pilot, who ejected from the jet and walked away after parachuting onto the end of the base’s Runway 32, and 12 people on the ground to the hospital.

During a Friday morning news conference, officials said the pilot was in good condition, but they generally declined to discuss specifics of the investigation into why the plane crashed or whether live ordnance was aboard the jet or in the warehouse.

The aircraft was carrying a “standard armament” package, Col. Thomas McNamara, vice commander of the 452nd Air Mobility Wing at March air base, said Friday. He declined to provide specifics of what types of weaponry was involved, but said all armaments had been recovered from the jet.

F-16s, which have been used in every U.S. military conflict since the first Gulf War, are capable of carrying air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles, as well as 20mm cannons.

McNamara said the jet’s ordnance had been secured and would be safely disposed of at an undisclosed location.

ABC7 broadcast images suggested the armaments may have been transported to an undeveloped portion of the Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center in Riverside, where they were possibly going to be neutralized underground.

Base officials issued a warning on social media that people in the area might hear some loud blasts as military personnel disposed of the materials.

Neither the colonel nor any other base representative offered an explanation or speculation as to why the F-16 went down, including the possibility of fuel starvation. There was no post-crash fire.

The pilot was returning from a homeland security mission involving West Coast patrols, under the direction of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, according to military officials.

The flight officer, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital for examination, according to March officials. He did not require hospitalization.

Riverside University Health System doctors said during a briefing near the air base Friday afternoon that 12 other patients, including several first responders, were brought to Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley from the crash scene for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

Three of those individuals were admitted to the hospital.

“It was a good outcome from an unexpected incident,” said RUHS spokeswoman Leah Patterson.

The doctors said several patients were treated for potential contamination exposure, though nothing else was disclosed for privacy protection.

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During an evening news conference Thursday, Riverside County Fire Capt. Fernando Herrera told reporters, “It’s pretty remarkable that (the jet) fell into a building -- there wasn’t a large explosion. There were no civilians injured severely. The pilot was ejected and survived. Obviously, this was good. We didn’t have a tragedy.”

He said 12 people inside the warehouse who were “exposed to the aircraft” went through a “decon” procedure where they were “hosed down” and then transported to an area hospital.

He declined to comment on anything having to do with the aircraft as he was not involved in the military aspect of the incident. He said the fire department was assisting the military.

Herrera said firefighters were planning to search the building for anything that might be of danger to the public overall.

“If there is anything that needs to be recovered, that’s going to be a military operation,” Herrera added. “We’re going to assess the situation inside. We’re going to report back what it is that we found.”

He said the industrial park where the crash occurred had been evacuated.

The F-16 pancaked onto the roof of the 500,000-square-foot warehouse, according to reports from the scene.

The structure is stacked with plastic pipes, aluminum awnings and other construction material, according to the California Highway Patrol, which was first to the scene.

Frankie Sandoval co-owns Bous Performance on Opportunity Way, just west of the 215 Freeway in a building that is shared with See Water. He is used to hearing March Air Reserve Base fighter jets shake his building upon takeoff.

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But, he said, what he and his Moreno Valley coworkers experienced Thursday afternoon when the F-16 Fighting Falcon crashed into his automotive parts business was something completely unexpected.

Sandoval said about 10 minutes prior to the incident, he was standing where the plane crashed.

"If I was standing there, I wouldn't be here," he said Thursday by phone. "I'd be gone. There would be no way I would survive that impact."

Prior to the crash, Sandoval said a coworker approached him and said a plane appeared to be flying on its side. Sandoval went outside and saw the plane flying slowly at roughly a 90-degree angle.

"Maybe an engine went out and it was losing power," he said.

A pilot ejected from the plane about a minute before it crashed into his building, according to Sandoval. He said he didn't know where the pilot landed.

"It didn’t sound like much of anything," he said of the crash. "It kind of just pierced through the roof."

Two of his employees were inside the building when it happened. One was tossed "pretty far," Sandoval said.

Paramedics had arrived by the time Sandoval entered the building.

Part of the warehouse was destroyed, Sandoval said. He estimated the losses were at least $250,000.

"At the end of the day," he said, "I'm just thankful to be alive."

The crash happened as the pilot was landing following a routine training mission, March Air Reserve Base Deputy Fire Chief Timothy Holliday said.

"The pilot was having hydraulic problems," Holliday said. "He started losing control of the aircraft."

The jet's cockpit canopy came to rest on a runway, and a parachute had settled in a nearby field.

Damage to the warehouse was relatively minor, and there was no major fire, which Holliday called "a miracle."

Television news showed a large hole in the roof and sprinklers on inside the building about 65 miles east of Los Angeles.

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March is home to the 452nd Air Mobility Wing, an Air Force Reserve component that utilizes mammoth C-17 transports, KC-135 refueling aircraft and C-130 transports.

The base is also home to the Air Force Reserve Command's Fourth Air Force Headquarters and various units of the Army Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, California Air National Guard and California Army National Guard.

Fighter jets are a rare sight at the base.

The last tactical jet crash at March occurred in 1989, when it was still an active-duty Air Force installation. That accident involved a fatality, according to published reports.

(*) CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article noted the wrong day of the fighter jet crash.

Desert Sun reporter Shane Newell, City News Service and The Associated Press contributed to this report.