F-14 Tomcat Is Destroyed in Crash While Landing

A Navy F-14 Tomcat jet fighter attempting a landing slammed into the rear of another F-14 on a runway at Alameda Naval Air Station and skidded into the Oakland Estuary, officials said Saturday.

The $30-million plane was destroyed in the Friday night accident, but the crew bailed out safely, and no serious injuries were reported, spokesman Bill Valente said. Damage to the jet that was rear-ended was being assessed.

The F-14 has been the standard fighter aboard aircraft carriers since 1972. They are capable of speeds up to 1,544 m.p.h. at high altitudes. Three planes of the type were featured in the movie “Top Gun.”

The crash occurred at 6:44 p.m. as three F-14s were arriving from San Diego’s Miramar Naval Air Station. The third jet was trying to land when it slammed into the rear of one of two that had preceded it. It then skidded across the runway and plunged into the Oakland Estuary, a quarter-mile-wide body of water that separates the air station from Oakland.

The pilot and radar officer ejected before the 20-ton plane plunged into the water, which is 40 to 45 feet deep. The fuselage sank.

The crewmen landed in the water. One was picked up by a passing American President Lines tugboat and the other by a Coast Guard rescue boat.

“The whole plane was shattered into pieces of debris,” said Coast Guard Coxswain Louis Hubbard, who was in charge of a rescue boat.

The crewmen, along with the two from the plane that was rear-ended, were examined at the air station clinic and released. Their names were not released.

The wreckage was lifted from the estuary by a crane late Saturday afternoon, and a Navy spokesman said it appeared to be “totaled,” though some parts might be salvaged. There was no estimate how fast the jet was going when it veered off the runway.