The fighter jet that crashed in a ball of fire at a Virginia Beach apartment complex Friday suffered a “catastrophic” mechanical malfunction with a student pilot in the front seat, a Navy official said Friday.

Both the student and his “extremely experienced” instructor ejected safely and were “up and about” following the harrowing 12:05 p.m. crash, Capt. Mark Weisgerber told reporters.

Miraculously, fire officials reported no known fatalities early Friday evening after they completed primary searches of the forty apartment units that were damaged.

Some residents still had not been located, officials said, but it’s possible they weren’t even home when the F-18 Hornet exploded into the Mayfair Mews Apartments, bursting into bright orange flames.

Witnesses described a scene of chaos, devastation and heroism at the sleepy two-story complex catering to retired residents.

“First we saw (the jet) circling around, doing its normal routine. Then we heard a ‘Boom!,’ like a very loud car backfiring, and we looked and saw smoke coming off the plane,” Ruby Gordy, 38, a neighbor who was sitting outside her building across the street, told the Daily News.

“We saw the pilots try to stabilize the plane for a few seconds, and then the canopy released. They ejected right at the tree line,” she recalled. “We saw the ‘chutes, but they just looked like streamers. They didn’t even have a chance to really open.”

Gordy and her roommate ran to the burning complex to warn residents to flee.

She said the pilot was still strapped to his seat on the ground outside, his parachute tangled on the building.

Her roommate helped move him behind a Dumpster to protect him from flying debris.

“He kept asking if everyone was okay. That was his main concern. We were worried about his legs, but he was more concerned about the people in the building,” she said.

Some seven people suffered non-life threatening injuries including smoke inhalation, officials said.

“Everything was red and everything was on fire and then black smoke started to come out and then we heard noises like ‘Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!” resident Joan Coleman, 87, told WAVY TV.

Worried the explosions were from live ammunition onboard the wreckage, she ran to the back of the building.

There she saw the pilot on the ground, his face covered with blood.

“One of the guys said to him, ‘Are you okay?” and he said, ‘I’m not really sure.’ He was in shock, but he said, ‘I’m sorry for destroying your home,'” she recalled.

She said the pilot “realized he had some kind of a problem, and he was trying to turn back around…so that he wouldn’t hit here.”

Witnesses reported the release of fuel from the crippled jet before it went down, leading some to believe the pilots were trying to mitigate damage on the ground.

Weisgerber said the fuel release appeared to be part of the “malfunction,” which happened shortly after takeoff.

He added there were no indications a bird was sucked into an engine — the cause of the Miracle on the Hudson landing from a few years ago.

As toxic black smoke billowed from multiple buildings Friday afternoon, crews on massive ladders first sprayed water and later a blanket of fire-retarding white foam.

Mangled pieces of the jet from Strike Fighter Squadron VFA 106 at the nearby Oceana station littered the central courtyard of the burned-out complex.

The squadron’s mission is to train Navy and Marine Corps replacement pilots, the Navy said.

Officials warned locals to stay away from the crash site because smoke from the burned jet fuel could contain harmful carbon fibers.

Many hailed the pilots for holding on until the last second.

“They did a marvelous job realizing what was going on and a marvelous job trying to not make it worse,” Bruce Nedelka, a division chief with Virginia Beach EMS, told the Daily News. “It really is amazing.”

(Source: NY Daily News)