DEERFIELD, Va. -- An experienced pilot was missing Wednesday after an F-15 fighter jet crashed in the mountains of western Virginia, shaking residents but causing no injuries on the ground, military and law enforcement officials said.
The pilot of the single-seat jet, who was headed to New Orleans for radar installation as part of routine maintenance, reported an in-flight emergency then lost radio contact, authorities said. The pilot and jet are with the 104th Fighter Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, officials there said.
It was unclear whether the pilot had ejected, Col. James Keefe said at a news conference in Westfield, Mass., home of the fighter wing. The plane had no munitions onboard, he said.
Keefe said the plane was flying at 30,000 to 40,000 feet -- "pretty high" -- when the pilot reported the emergency.
"We are not going to speculate on what occurred or the status of the pilot," Keefe said. "We are hopeful that the pilot is OK."
Residents near Deerfield -- a town about 135 miles northwest of Richmond with a population of 130 people -- said they heard a series of explosions Wednesday morning.
"It's the loudest noise I've ever heard," 63-year-old Rebecca Shinaberry, who lives on a farm about 2 miles away, said. "It just shook the ground, and from my house we could just see a big plume of smoke."
Her husband, turkey farmer A.D. Shinaberry, said that from the first two booms, he thought a plane had broken the sound barrier. But 10 seconds later he heard a third boom -- the crash, he said.
Then, "it was like a mushroom, black smoke came up," Shinaberry said.
From the smoke, Virginia State Police located the crash site in a heavily wooded but level area adjacent to a mountain in the George Washington National Forest.
"It is probably 5, 6 miles from the crash site to the nearest civilization," Keefe said. "It's deeply wooded, and a lot of hills and mountains."
State police were searching the crash site, where there is a deep crater and a large debris field, spokesman Corrine Geller said.
Meanwhile, several dozen local, state and federal officials, and volunteers gathered at the Deerfield Volunteer Fire Department to search for the pilot. State police said about seven helicopters were being used, including two from the FBI.
F-15s are maneuverable tactical fighters that can reach speeds up to 1,875 mph, according to the Air Force website. The F-15C Eagle entered the Air Force inventory in 1979 and costs nearly $30 million each, the website says. The Air Force has nearly 250 F-15s.
Several F-15s have crashed over the past few years in various states. In at least one, the pilot ejected safely. Crash causes included failure of a support structure for the jet and pilot error.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Felberbaum, Brock Vergakis and Stephen Singer of The Associated Press.
A Section on 08/28/2014