now he makes shocking remarks about asian-owned businesses. wolf blitzer is off. i'm joe johns. you're in "the situation room." -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >> breaking news, a horrifying scene in a crowded apartment complex in virginia beach as a navy jet crashes into buildings there, shooting flames and thick, black smoke into the sky. the crew members ejected and were taken to the hospital. now an urgent effort to account for all of the people on the ground. our brian todd has the very latest details. brian, what do we know? >> joe, the very latest from fire and rescue officials in virginia beach, we know that at least six people have been injured. that includes the two crew members, four others on the ground injured and taken to local hospitals and at least one of them is a policeman treated for smoke inhalation. these injuries not believed to be life-threatening. i'll show you some of the pictures and the horrific-looking pictures and we'll talk location. you see some of the pictures of the aftermath and the aerial view of this apartment complex that the f/a-18d fighter jet from oceana naval air station crashed into. this occurred just after noon according to navy officials at about 12:30 p.m., virginia transportation department cameras showed some of the images that you're seeing here. thick, black smoke emanating from the scene. now let's talk location. we have a map here and we'll play this for you here. this is oceana naval air station in virginia beach. it's about two miles from oceana to this apartment complex. now what we are told from the local battalion chief there is that there are about eight apartments to each building in this complex, and that at least five buildings were hit. from our own forensic view from this from the aerial footage, we know at least these four building here, one, two, three and four were hit. this one looks to be a part of a fifth one here, but crews are combing through this neckage now, getting an assessment and, please, we have to caution you the early assessments on injuries and casualties are very early in the process. they are combing through this wreckage right now. this complex on the mayfair mews complex two miles from the oceana air station from virginia beach. now we'll show you where this is in relation to the atlantic ocean to virginia beach. we'll continue playing our google earth map here, zooming back here, about a mile and maybe even less from the beach here, virginia beach and downtown virginia beach right about here. also worth noting that this is the area of spring break, early april, late march. spring break going on and a lot of vacationers in virginia beach and when you talk about what could have potentially happened here, a frightening story. virginia beach fire department, his main concern right now, and you can see it in the video, his main concern are the fibers from the smoke. top priority, he says is containing the smoke. we just heard a witness on our air say he came upon the scene fairly early and he said it was the thick, oily smoke and he said if you've been in this area and you've been around some of these mishaps with these fighter jets you know that's a very distinctive type of smoke that you can inhale and it can be very damaging. also worth noting, joe, one witness named amy miller was on our air a short time ago. she said she works just around the corner from this apartment building where this happened. she said she saw flames underneath the right wing of this f/a-18d fighter jet as it was coming down. she also then heard two explosions. she also told us there is a school nearby. so again, when you talk about that school nearby that was avoided, the potential casualties in the downtown virginia beach area, you realize just how frightening an incident this was, but again, early assessment on casualties, six people hurt including the two crew members taken to area hospitals. one of them, we are told, is a policeman treated for smoke inhalation, again, a very early assessment of those injuries. this could very well change in the coming hours, joe. >> brian, just taking everything that you're reported here and putting it together, it sounds like that kind of smoke would make it very difficult for the authorities to get any kind of door-to-door assessment of who might still have been inside the building. that is correct. >> police are going around to other buildings in the area looking to see who was home and who might have been around at the time, but you can see from this video that we're seeing here, a lot of these buildings and the things that the fire crews are actually having to touch and sift through, still just incredibly hot to the touch. you've got foam there and not clear exactly how dangerous that might be to navigate through, but the smoke inhalation, we heard it from tom riley, the battalion chief from the virginia beach fire department say his top priority is containing the smoke. his main worry is the carbon fibers from the smoke being inhaled from people around that area and that includes the first responders who are risking their lives just going through this trying to find people. very early in the process still, joe, and still clearly, harrowing images we are seeing here. >> very difficult to assess before how long it will be before they enter and try to get that assessment. >> it's probably several hours before it's safe to enter some of the areas that were hardest hit by this crash. you have smoldering smoke and flames around this apartment complex. it does look like a fairly small area contained, but you have two or three floors of these buildings and five buildings were hit. one of them looked like it was completely devastated and it looked like it had been gutted and it was very hard to assess who was in there at the time and as you said, it might take hours for them to sift through it. >> great reporting there. thanks so much. stay on the story, brian, and we will definitely be getting back to you. let's turn now to cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr who has been all over the story since it broke. barbara, this is an area where the navy has a very large presence. watching that, do you have any updated developments from the pentagon? >> well, that's right, joe. i think the question a lot of people are asking as you point out, large presence, what was this aircraft doing flying over a residential area? the navy operates an f/a-18 training unit in oceana, and what they do is they train for carrier landings where they get enough training on land and then they go out to sea and they learn how to land and take off from an aircraft carrier at sea and then they are off to war over the last ten years. so there have been a number of flights in the oceana area. some residents had been talking today about seeing more flights in recent weeks. in fact, they are seeing more flights because one of the airfields that they have used south of town has been closed for maintenance, so they are doing more flights at oceana, but for years now they have operated in and out of oceana even with the development growing around the region. so what happened today, very unusual and very difficult situation in a populated area. this aircraft ran into trouble within seconds of takeoff. it impacted the ground, hit the ground about two miles off the runway. that gave the pilots very little time to react, perhaps just a few seconds. they were able to eject most likely at a very low altitude and of course, as we've talked about all day, military pilots are very trained to try and steer away from civilian areas in the united states where they're operating. they do everything they can, no matter what is going on in an emergency, to try to steer clear. by all accounts today they tried to avoid that school and thankfully, at least the early reports only some people hurt, but those search parties go on, joe. >> obviously, this is something that people don't normally think about, but a low-level ejection from a fighter jet could certainly cause tremendous hazards. can you talk about that a little bit? >> oh, absolutely. this is not, you know, ejecting from your fighter jet at the best of times is an extremely dangerous procedure especially in combat which is what it is designed for, basically. you have a rocket charge under your seat and you pull the handle and the cockpit cover flies away and you are basically launched into the air at an altitude that you then deploy your parachute and you are able to float down to the ground, but if you're going to have to eject at a low altitude you don't have that parachute distance to float down. so the pilots were at tremendous risk. a very unusual procedure if that's how it all unfolded and basically, a very significant damage on the ground. there would have been damage anyhow, but they didn't have time to dump all their fuel, clearly, and that's what you began to see unfold on the ground. the fire, the fuel damage and the debris field spread out over such a large area because the plane, by all accounts, never really achieved any altitude. it just went straight in. joe? >> barbara starr, thanks for that and we'll be looking to you for future developments. let's turn now to a witness. she says she was watching the jet in the sky when it crashed, and we want to talk to you a little bit. are you on the phone there? >> yep. i'm here. >> joanna hyatt, you were there with your 2-year-old child and you were watching this thing and pointing it out to her, but you didn't think this was some type of a plane in distress. talk to me a little bit about that. >> that's right. i was pointing the fighter out to my daughter, and i immediately saw the pilot eject. i saw the parachute and at that point didn't pay much attention to the jet itself, in fact, i don't really recall what i saw as far as the plane was concerned. i watched the pilot go down and immediately afterward, ten second, a black plume of smoke came up. that's when i thought something was awry and i realized something must have gone wrong and the pilot was ejecting. i was with friends who lived in the house where i was taking the photo from and they said that's not routine at all and with fighter jets in the air, they began circling around and the smoke started billowing up pretty quickly. at that point about -- this is about 30 seconds after i heard -- we heard an explosion, but nothing that would indicate anything that crashed. i mean, that's why i never thought anything was wrong. there was never any impact or noise so i didn't hear anything. we realized something was wrong. we jumped into the car and drove around the corner to the apartment complex. she lived 300 meters from there and that's when we saw lots of black smoke and the entire building that we came up to had been already engulfed and it was strange to see that it was so filled with smoke so quickly. >> miss hyatt, as i understand it, you took a picture with your iphone while you were watching this plane. how close were you? we do have other reports earlier on cnn that someone saw fire under the right wing of the plane shortly before it crashed. did you see anything like that? >> no. no, nothing like that. there were multiple fighter jets in the sky. that one was definitely much lower. maybe that's why it caught my attention. even when i saw the parachute come out and -- i never saw no fire, no flash. nothing. >> what was going through your head? >> well, you know, i was excited that katie, my daughter, could see the parachute. i don't know if she really caught that part or not, but as soonsa the smoke came up it was definitely a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something wasn't right although i still was questioning if it was nothing major because i hadn't heard any impact. i hadn't felt anything so i had no cause to be seriously alarmed, but as soon as we heard the minor explosion and then approached the apartment building in the car we knew things were seriously wrong. >> how much do you know about the area? is it your understanding that on a typical day people will be inside those buildings? >> you know, i'm not from here so i don't know much about the area, but the friend that i was visiting, the first thing that she was saying when we approached was that it was spring break. she knows that apartment complex fairly well. it's a worldwide mix of people, a lot of families and it was spring break occurring and there were more apt to be people at home. we saw people runing to the buildings and there were no firemen, no rescue workers and we were all concerned that were there people able to get out and was there help on the scene? it was a little disturbing. >> absolutely. we've seen a lot of pictures there of people in the area apparently helping the authorities. thanks so much miss highet. >> you're welcome. >> we are glad that you're safe there. >> thank you. fascinating and a good sign at least for now that authorities are saying no one was killed in this horrible accident, though, using brian todd's caution, still very, very early there on the scene and the authorities have not been able to go door to door and find out what's what. we'll hear from more witnesses including a man who found one of the ejected crew members on his back porch. and another man who saw the crew eject and found one of the seats. plus, what's a pilot supposed to do in a crisis like this? we'll talk to a former navy pilot about emergency protocols. if there was a pill to help protect your eye health as you age... would you take it? well, there is. 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was he saying anything? >> he apologized very much for hitting our complex. i said don't worry about it. everything will be fine. let's get you out of here and get you to safety. >> were you able to move him without any issue? >> no, like i said, i'm retired rescue. he was in shock, still strapped to his seat, so a bunch of neighbors, we just picked him up and dragged him to the other side of the parking lot away from the fire until rescue could get on the scene. >> there was a second person in the aircraft. did you see the second person come out? >> we did not see the second pilot, and i didn't know exactly where the plane had crashed, but i knew we had gas lines in the building, so we had to get -- get him away from where we were. i kept hearing secondary explosions going off. i don't know if that was fuel, gas lines in the apartment or what. i knew we had to leave. >> reporter: so when the pilot came down he was still strapped to his ejection seat? >> still strapped to his chute and the seat. >> that's unusual because they generally separate from those. they were taken off. >> he had something on his lower half of his body, something heavy because he was heavy. >> reporter: and you and some neighbors were able to get him out. >> we were able to pick him up and dragged him on the other side of my apartment complex away from the flames until we could get more people -- ems on the scene to strap him up and take him out. >> another witness who lives very close to the scene of the crash tells what it was like when the plane went down. >> i was actually in the house. my wife had come out to just check to see what the weather was like outside, and when she walked outside of the condo she heard -- she heard the jet, and then just saw it almost fall out of the sky. it did come down with its nose up and it was almost at a -- at an angle pointing towards us. the actual crash site is probably 75 yards from where we are and the ejection seat came over. it hit one of the oak trees and took a few branches off of that and then it slammed into our fence at the condo and went through the fence into the home next door. >> so what are the protocols when a fighter jet is in danger of crashing? 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