SAN DIEGO -- Residents in the Del Cerro and Allied Gardens neighborhoods experienced a scare Friday morning after a large military cargo plane flew low and slowly above them, 10News reported.

10News received calls from viewers in the area shortly after 10 a.m. about the aircraft. Allied Gardens resident Doug Elliot had just finished washing his car when he saw the plane. "As soon as I looked up, it banked to its right and started taking off over Del Cerro, which usually the planes come from there," he said.

Elliott said at first he thought the plane was going to crash, but he then remembered an incident in February of this year when an F-18 from MCAS Miramar mistook the runway at Montgomery Field for MCAS and scared several people in the neighborhood.

"And that's when I figured it must be another case of mistaken identity because that's what happened before with the F-18," Elliott said.

Less than a mile away, Jeff Crispell was working outdoors when he noticed the aircraft. "It was low and slow and headed in the wrong direction," said Crispell.

He watched as the plane banked a couple of times and then left in the direction from which it came. Crispell told 10News, "To me, it's the second time that we've had sort of an erroneous approach to Montgomery (Field), which kind of is alarming."

10News checked with Marine Corps Air Station Miramar and with Naval Air Station North Island and representatives from each base said the plane did not come from or land at either station.

10News contacted the March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County and learned the plane had originated from there.

The big cargo plane, a C-17, was participating in San Diego State University's annual memorial for Aztecs who joined the military and were killed in the line of duty. It was performing a ceremonial fly-by in tribute to the fallen.