Navy Pilot Hurt, Officer Dies in Crash Off Coast

A Navy radar intercept officer was killed and a pilot was injured after they ejected from an F-14 jet fighter Wednesday off Point Loma, Navy officials said.

The cause of death has not been determined, but Lt. Mark Williamson was under 40 feet of water for about 10 minutes before he was found by Navy divers. He did not respond to efforts to revive him, a Navy spokesman said.

Pilot Cmdr. Stephen Carro was taken to the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park. The extent of his injuries had not been determined, said Danny Brown, a civilian spokeswoman for the North Island Naval Air Rework Facility, where the fliers are stationed.

The jet took off from North Island Naval Air Station shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday, Chief Petty Officer Paul Versailles said. They were delivering the plane back to a fighter squadron at Miramar Naval Air Station after routine maintenance, Brown said.

“We provide normal maintenance so that the innards on the aircraft are in order,” Brown said, adding that the F-14 had no particular problem when it was sent to the facility. “The rework facility is a tenant doing work for the Navy for the past 67 years.”

A San Diego man fishing 1 1/2 miles off the tip of Point Loma witnessed the accident, as did members of a Navy ordnance disposal unit conducting diving training 200 yards from the crash site. They said the plane apparently experienced trouble just after takeoff.

“You could hear the roaring of the plane and then, all of a sudden, it got quiet,” said retired Army helicopter pilot Tom Kenny, 48, the fisherman. He said he saw two parachutes open and the plane crash into the water.

He said he cut his fishing lines and moved in to help, but the Navy divers’ rubber boats were already in the area.

The unit, consisting of three divers and two boats with two-man crews, had been at the site two miles south of North Island for about three minutes before the crash.

Divers Chief Petty Officer Ted James and Lt. Dale Webber said everyone in the unit turned to watch as the craft flew overhead.

“The plane went through the morning’s low cloud ceiling and disappeared. A few seconds later it came back in sight--pitching and dragging its tail,” James said.

“We heard the high-pitched whine of the engine before the plane went down,” Webber said.

Carro was found floating, still attached to his parachute, James said. “He was spitting up blood and complaining of shoulder pains,” James said.

While James cut the parachute from Carro, the other crewmen searched for Williamson. They found his parachute but he was not attached to it. A search uncovered Williamson face down on the ocean floor.

Brown said it is not known why Williamson sank or if he was wearing the mandatory flotation vest.

“We require our pilots to wear safety belts while in the plane and automatic-inflatable flotation vests when they eject,” Brown said.

According to Webber, the unconscious Williamson was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation upon surfacing, and the Harbor Patrol gave him oxygen. However, he did not regain consciousness.

Williamson, 33, of Logan, Utah, had been with the rework facility since 1984, Brown said.

Carro, 36, of Summit, N.J., has been at the facility since March. Both men lived in the San Diego area, Brown said.

A Navy investigation board will look into the accident and inspect the salvaged jet.