‘Distraught’ AF Pilot Says He Did Best to Avoid Disaster

A “considerably distraught” Air Force pilot pleaded for understanding Wednesday and insisted he had done all he could to ditch his crippled jet fighter in a vacant lot before ejecting and watching it slam into an airport hotel.

The collision Tuesday morning near the international airport here left nine employees of the Ramada Inn dead and at least six other people injured.

Maj. Bruce Teagarden, pilot of the single engine A-7D Corsair, bailed out seconds before his plunging and powerless aircraft rammed into the lobby of the seven-story hotel. Teagarden, only slightly hurt in his descent, has remained in seclusion on a military base here. However, he left the base briefly for a helicopter flight over the crash scene with military investigators trying to reconstruct the accident.

Later, Teagarden issued a brief and anguished statement addressed to families of the victims as well as the people of Indianapolis.

‘Everything Humanly Possible’

“It is impossible to express to you how deeply grieved I am by your loss,” said Teagarden, 35, who is stationed at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. “I wish with all my heart that it had been within my power to keep my plane headed toward that open field once I aimed it there. Please understand I did everything humanly possible to prevent this. My prayers are with you all.”

The statement was read to reporters by Brig. Gen. Tom Hall, a wing commander at Nellis and the highest ranking Air Force official at the crash scene. After a brief meeting Wednesday with Teagarden, Hall described the pilot as “considerably distraught.” Hall said he did not discuss details of the incident with Teagarden, but said the pilot told him he had screamed, “Oh No! Oh No!” as he watched his then empty aircraft smash into the hotel and erupt into flames.

Hall said Teagarden would not be permitted to talk to the press until the military’s on-site investigation was completed, a process that typically could take 35 to 40 days.

Describes System Failure

However, the Indianapolis News said Teagarden told a police detective soon after the crash that he experienced a sudden failure of virtually all on-board systems about 40 minutes after leaving Pittsburgh Tuesday morning. Norman Mathews, the policeman, said Teagarden told him he finally got the radio to work so he could talk to air controllers but tried and failed 15 to 20 times to restart the engine, the paper reported.

“He told me that (the) plane wasn’t headed toward the hotel when he ejected, but that when he saw the plane heading toward the Ramada he thought ‘Oh God,’ ” the newspaper quoted Mathews as saying.

Hall said that Teagarden insisted that, although he had no power, he never lost control of the aircraft steering. “He had steered it toward an empty field and ejected, and as soon as he ejected, it veered to the right,” Hall said.

Although Hall declined to speculate on whether Teagarden had violated Air Force guidelines in ditching the plane, the general said the pilot’s handling of the tense situation may have avoided a much greater loss of life.

Hard to Aim Plane

Hall said Teagarden ejected only after piercing a layer of low hanging clouds that had obscured his vision and made it hard to aim the plane. When Teagarden finally jumped, Hall said, he was well below the minimum safe bailout altitude recommended by the Air Force.

“Had he jumped out above the overcast, that airplane could have gone anywhere, it could have been downtown,” Hall said. “He was doing the best he could. It’s tragic.”

Teagarden’s conduct also won praise from T. Allan McArtor, head of the Federal Aviation Administration. “This is a very tragic accident, and it happened after a pilot rather courageously tried to bring in a crippled jet under adverse weather conditions with a clear attempt to try to avoid loss of life and property and simply was not able to do so.” McArtor said on NBC’s “Today Show.”

Meanwhile, a team of 70 military technicians, investigators and security men began sifting through the charred and twisted rubble of the hotel, seeking clues to help explain why the plane’s single engine quit working.

Flameout at 31,000 Feet

Teagarden was cruising about 15 miles south of Indianapolis when he experienced an engine flameout at 31,000 feet. He radioed a distress call to air traffic controllers and headed for the Indianapolis International Airport, but had to scrub an emergency landing when he came in too high to hit the main runway. He turned to make another try, but was plunging too rapidly to have another chance.

Ironically, Teagarden was returning to Nellis from Pittsburgh, where he had flown on Friday to attend the funeral of Air Force Maj. Gary Swisher who died Oct. 8 in the crash of an F-4E Phantom jet in North Carolina. Teagarden also spent the weekend with his parents who live near Pittsburgh.