BELLEVILLE, Mich. (WWJ) -- A tragedy was very narrowly avoided on Sunday when a performance jet crashed during a Michigan air show, just missing an apartment building.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are on the scene Monday where the wreckage from a Russian-made MIG-23 fighter jet sits less than 15 feet from the Waverly on the Lake Apartments in Belleville, and only about 100 yards from the I-94 freeway.
"It's very fortunate, of course, that nobody on the ground was injured," NTSB investigator John Brannen told WWJ's Jon Hewett and other reporters. "In this case we have a fairly large airplane, and you know the fact that both pilots survived and there were no ground injuries is...a very good outcome."
Brannen explained that the pilots had already made one flyby during Sunday's Thunder Over Michigan, and was circling for a second pass when he apparently experienced engine difficulty. The pilots put out a distress call and then both ejected safely before the jet came down.
No one was hurt, but the aircraft did hit some unoccupied vehicles in the apartment complex’s parking lot, officials said.
The air show was stopped and spectators were told to leave the area following the incident.
As for why this happened, Brannen said the investigation is only in the preliminary stages.
"We're arraigning to have a recovery crew come get the airplane so that we can do further examination offsite," Brannen said. "Right now all the information that we have is very preliminary and, you know, we can't really draw any conclusions from what we know at this point. That will take several months before we can get further into the investigation."
Brannen said the fact that the jet is Russian-made could slow the investigation quite a bit.
"Being a military aircraft and on top of that a Russian military aircraft is going to make things a little more difficult for us," he said. "We do have experts in Washington on turbine engines and things like that. We plan to employ their assistance with. you know, doing engine examinations, component examinations, things like that."
Officials told Hewett that it could take a couple of days just to remove the jet wreckage from the scene. EPA investigators are also expected to spend time at the site, making sure nothing environmentally unsafe is left behind.
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