San Diego
A Navy pilot who was killed when his jet fighter off the coast of San Diego was identified Thursday as a veteran of the Vietnam and Persian Gulf wars.
The single-seat A-4 Skyhawk, operating out of Miramar Naval Air Station, crashed Wednesday about 60 miles off San Diego.
The victim was as Cmdr. John J. Roach, 47, a member of Miramar-based Fighter Squadron 126, said Chief Petty Officer Bobbie Carleton, a base spokeswoman.
Carleton said investigators have yet to determine why the jet crashed or how Roach died. But a report in the San Diego Union said that Roach was killed when his parachute failed to open completely.
Divers from the nearby aircraft carrier Nimitz retrieved the pilot’s body. The A-4 and other planes in the squadron are painted to match and simulate Soviet warplanes.
Pilots from the aggressor squadron train over the Pacific and desert, using Soviet dogfighting tactics against other U.S. pilots.
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