By ALAN SUDERMAN Associated Press

DEERFIELD, Va. (AP) - An experienced pilot was missing Wednesday after the flier's 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 was headed to New Orleans for radar installation as part of routine maintenance and reported an inflight 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 and the plane had no munitions onboard, Col. James Keefe said at a news conference in Westfield, Massachusetts, home of the fighter wing.

Just before 9 a.m., residents near Deerfield - with a population of just 130 people, about 135 miles northwest of Richmond - say they heard a series of explosion-like booms.

"It's the loudest noise I've ever heard," 63-year-old Rebecca Shinaberry, who lives on a farm about two 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 said, they located the crash site, in a heavily wooded but level area adjacent to a mountain in the George Washington National Forest.

A deep crater and a large debris field are on the site, and state police are searching, spokeswoman Corrine Geller said.

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Pilot's fate unknown in fighter jet crash - News, Weather and Classifieds for Southern New England