AF Pilot in Hotel Crash Praised

An Air Force pilot said he tried to guide his powerless jet toward an empty field before bailing out, and a federal official said today that the pilot acted “courageously” even though the jet hit a crowded hotel and killed nine people. (Story on Page 5.)

The pilot, Maj. Bruce Teagarden, 35, of Las Vegas, was not hurt seriously when he ejected at less than 800 feet and parachuted into a parking lot of a supply company. A clerk at the supply company said Teagarden told her that he wanted to guide the plane “into the field behind us and that he wanted to miss the Ramada but he just could not control the plane.”