Many elderly homeless after U.S. Navy jet levels apartments

 All residents of an apartment complex for the elderly in Virginia that was destroyed when a U.S. Navy fighter jet crashed into it on Friday have been accounted for, and everyone injured have been discharged from a hospital, rescue officials said on Saturday.

Many residents are now seeking somewhere to live after spending last night in a Red Cross shelter, officials said.

"Everyone has been accounted for" at the Mayfair Mews complex in Virginia Beach, the city's fire Chief Tim Riley told Reuters, after crews had searched into the night for three missing residents since the crash. "We are not actively looking for anyone."

The crash injured seven people in all, including both crew members, and damaged six buildings. A navy official said on Saturday afternoon that an aviator who had spent the night in the hospital has now been discharged.

Officials who scoured the blackened shells for bodies and civilians who witnessed the incident said they were amazed no one was killed or seriously injured in the fiery crash.
"We're considered very fortunate for this event," Riley said.

Admiral John Harvey of U.S. Navy thanked fire and police officials for the "amazing miracle ... where no one died as we know it" during a news conference.

He also thanked the city's citizens, who he said pulled the navy's aircrew to safety, dragged fire hoses into place and helped evacuate residents from the apartment complex.

"It was a pretty amazing display in Virginia Beach of what citizenship really means," Harvey said.

Rescue crews, though, have not yet issued an "all-clear" and continue combing through layers of debris to make sure no passers-by or others lie beneath the rubble. As of Saturday morning there have been no reports of missing people, Riley said.