Military Jets Salute Angels but Make Residents Edgy

A flyover by three jets saluting the Anaheim Angels on opening night at Edison International Field startled a number of North Orange County residents Tuesday by stirring images of the Kosovo conflict.

“I thought we were going to get bombed,” said Maria Berumen, who lives in north Orange.

What she saw about 7 p.m. scared the daylights out of her, Berumen said. “I was preparing dinner for my kids, and all of a sudden I heard a rumbling, and my walls and windows started shaking.”

The three fighter planes, she said, “were only a couple of hundred feet up, and they seemed to be making circles. It was weird and scary.”

Richard Amador, a firefighter who lives in Anaheim Hills, had a similar reaction. “It looked like a ‘Top Gun’ dogfight going on right over my house,” he said. “I was just so stunned--this isn’t normal.”

In fact, such events are not unusual. Stadiums for years have featured flyovers to mark the beginning of various athletic events. The planes deployed for Tuesday’s game between the Angels and the Cleveland Indians were a Stealth F1-17 and two F-16s from Edwards Air Force Base, according to a news release from Edison International Field.

“We’ve had flyovers for numerous events here--postseason games, the All-Star Game and almost every home opener in the last few years,” said Kevin Uhlich, Angels’ vice president of ballpark operations. “If it wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t do it and the military wouldn’t do it.”

Against the backdrop of an air war in Europe, though, the low-flying fighters made some residents jittery.

“I thought of Kosovo,” said Bruce Stevenson, who saw the planes from his backyard in Placentia. “We don’t see too many military jets flying overhead. They were pretty low and close.”

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Times staff writer Bill Shaikin contributed to this report.