POINT MUGU : Navy Identifies Men Whose Jet Crashed

Officials at Point Mugu Naval Air Station identified two Navy crew members Friday whose attack jet crashed in the Santa Ynez Mountains a day earlier and ignited a brush fire still burning in the rugged terrain northeast of Santa Barbara.

Lt. Paul E. Barney 3rd, the pilot of the A-7 Corsair jet, and the jet’s navigator, Lt. Cmdr. Steven P. Albert, both parachuted to safety shortly before the plane crashed Thursday afternoon, said Navy spokesman Lt. Gene Okamoto.

Albert, 35, of San Francisco was hospitalized briefly at Goleta Valley Hospital in Santa Barbara for a broken leg and shoulder blade, Okamoto said.

Barney, 34, of Vallejo was taken by helicopter to the Navy clinic at Point Mugu, where he was treated for bruises and released.

Both men are members of the Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron Thirty-Four (VAQ-34), a shore-based squadron that provides simulated hostile electronic warfare for fleet training exercises.

The crash came a week after Lt. Cmdr. Rosemary Mariner assumed command of the squadron, becoming the first woman in U.S. armed services history to lead an operational air squadron.

The fire, which charred more than 400 acres near the Gibraltar Reservoir, about 12 miles northeast of Santa Barbara, was about 10% contained Friday, said Becky Bittner, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. Officials said they hoped to have the fire fully contained early today.

About 450 firefighters, including personnel from Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties and the California Department of Forestry, were battling the blaze, Bittner said.

The jet, which took off from the Pacific Missile Test Center near Oxnard around noon Thursday on a routine training mission, was destroyed, Okamoto said. The cause of the crash is under investigation.