2 Killed as Navy Plane Crashes During Takeoff

An electronic warfare plane used by the Navy to jam enemy radar crashed Monday while taking off from North Island Naval Air Station, killing two of the three airmen on board.

Based at the naval air station on Whidbey Island, Wash., 80 miles northwest of Seattle, the twin-engine EA-6B Prowler jet was operating out of North Island while on “a routine training mission” when it crashed at 5:38 p.m., Cmdr. Bob Pritchard said.

The surviving airman was flown by military helicopter to the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park, where he was reported in stable condition Monday night. The names of crewmen were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

A storage shed at the end of the runway was destroyed in the accident, Pritchard said, with wood and debris from the plane scattered over a wide area. He said no other property, civilians or naval personnel were involved.

Pritchard said the plane “hit the ground and just burst into flames,” sending up a plume of black smoke that was seen for miles. He said the cause of the crash was unknown but that an investigation was “already under way.”

He said the crash was the first involving the Grumman-made EA-6B, the entire fleet of which is based at Whidbey Island.

“It was just at the end of its takeoff,” Navy Lt. Jack Papp told the Associated Press. “It crashed just as it reached the end of the runway. There was nothing left. The plane’s a complete loss.”

Pritchard said the EA-6B can accommodate a four-man crew but that only three officers (one pilot and two electronics specialists) were on board. He said the plane is used “for countermeasures, for degrading enemy radar” and that the crew was what is known as a replacement squadron that went by the Navy designation of VAQ-129.

“These were gentlemen who had their wings,” Pritchard said. “They were experienced aviators, just learning the particulars of the EA-6B, the aircraft they’d be flying, prior to joining the fleet.”