Stricken F-111 May Have Let Bomb Fall on Civilian Area

A stricken Air Force fighter-bomber, hit by Libyan anti-aircraft fire, may have dropped a 2,000-pound bomb on a civilian area of Tripoli, Pentagon sources said today as the Navy gave up its search for the F-111 jet and two crewmen.

In Britain, a Conservative politician broke a U.S.-imposed news blackout and said many of the 18 F-111s in the attack Monday were turned back by missile fire and returned to their British base without dropping any bombs, thus saving further civilian casualties.

In Washington, Adm. William J. Crowe, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters: “My best judgment is that the crew was killed in the crash. . . . I think the possibility of its being hit (by Libyan fire) is a very definite one.”

Pentagon sources said it is believed that the F-111 was hit by anti-aircraft fire while over its Libyan target in the Tripoli area and exploded into a fireball one to 10 miles out at sea.

The sources said it is thought that, after the plane was hit, the pilot swung the jet into a 170-degree turn to head back out to sea and that the gravitational forces dislodged a 2,000-pound bomb from a wing pylon.

May Have Hit Civilian Area

The bomb is believed to have dropped in a civilian area of Tripoli, and its explosion would explain reports of damage to a residential section, the sources said.

Noting that there were “great uncertainties at 2 a.m.” Libya time Tuesday when the planes swooped in low over the Libyan coast, Crowe said, “We do have some pilots that were witnesses to a firebomb going in the water off Tripoli and we believe that was the aircraft.”

“We don’t have anything to indicate that they ejected,” Pentagon spokesman Robert Sims said Tuesday of the fliers, who sit side by side in a capsule-like cockpit, which can be propelled from the plane like a projectile.

The pilot of the plane was Capt. Fernando Ribas-Dominicci, 33, of Puerto Rico, and the weapons officer was Capt. Paul Lorence, 31, of San Francisco, the Air Force said. The plane was attached to the 48th Tactical Fighter Wing at the British base at Lakenheath, England.

Ribas-Dominicci’s brother said the family had received word the aircraft crashed into the sea.

Landing at Base in Spain

A second twin-engine F-111F was forced to land at a NATO air base in Rota, Spain, on the way back from the air strike because of an overheated engine. Sims said it will remain there for repairs.

The search-and-rescue operation was described as extensive, lasting more than 24 hours after the 33 planes launched the primary attack.

In Mildenhall, England, Sir Eldon Griffiths, a member of Parliament, confirmed that “a significant number” of the F-111s, turned back by SAM-3 missile fire, returned to Lakenheath base with their bombs still aboard.

He did not give an exact figure, but said “there would have been more civilian damage” if their bombs had been released.

Griffiths, breaking a U.S. news blackout on details of the raid, said that there were five selected targets in the raid and that he considers them “proper ones” in the interests of suppressing Kadafi’s ability to mount terrorist attacks.

Describes Targets

He said the targets were:

--The barracks complex at Azizya, where he said the Americans believe that many terrorist attacks were planned. “They struck that--they hit it hard,” he said.

--The military site of Tripoli International Airport where between three and five Ilyushin 76 transport aircraft used to carry terrorist-trained personnel were destroyed or severely damaged.

--The Sidi Bilal commando training school, which was “struck very hard,” he said.

--The Benina airfield outside Benghazi where up to 12 MIG-23s were destroyed or severely damaged and a spare-part hangar for the aircraft was also hit.

--The Jamahariyah barracks in Benghazi. Griffiths said he had no information on the damage there.