What happened
On Friday evening witnesses in Mission Row reported gunfire and a loud bang before a grey military jet came down and skidded to a stop beneath the freeway overpass. Images sent to Weazel News showed the fuselage torn open along its side, with smoke rising from the wreck.
Within minutes police and military units sealed off the area. Photos taken from an apartment across the street showed officers in tactical gear gathering inside the Mission Row station as more gunshots were heard nearby.
Why experts doubt the official picture
Three independent aviation specialists told Weazel News that modern military jets fly too high and too fast to be hit by small arms, and carry flares and countermeasures against missiles. The wreck shows no scorching or shrapnel damage, no debris trail and no crater. The tail marking "H-27" matches no aircraft we can find registered to the San Andreas Air National Guard.
Some have asked whether the wreck was placed there to justify the military presence on the streets.
What the Air National Guard says
In a statement signed by Capt. Elena R. Vasquez, the Guard confirmed the wreck is "connected to an ongoing operational matter" and is under a joint review. It called claims of a hoax, a staged action or small-arms fire "speculative", and said no technical details, operational records or personnel information will be released until the review is complete.
What we still don’t know
What the operation was. Who, if anyone, was flying. Who opened fire, or whether anyone did. Why the tail marking matches nothing on record. Weazel News is still asking, and we will update this page when we get answers.
Update: the Guard’s third account
The Air National Guard now says the aircraft was an H-27 Hydra VTOL fighter on a routine training flight that suffered an engine malfunction, that there is no evidence it was shot down, and that its crew ejected safely with no fatalities. It says “H-27” means the 27th design in the Hydra series and is an internal military identifier.
That account clashes with the Governor’s office, which said on Saturday that “no aircraft was lost over Mission Row”. It also leaves open why a fighter was training over Los Santos on the night of an earthquake warning, and why residents reported gunfire before it came down.
