Navy Pilot Rescued After Jet Crashes; Another Is Missing

A Navy pilot was rescued Wednesday evening and a second was missing after an S-3A Viking jet went down in the ocean about 70 miles south of San Clemente Island, a Navy spokesman said.

A ship and four aircraft from the Navy and U.S. Coast Guard were searching for the second pilot late Wednesday, said Ken Mitchell, public affairs officer for the North Island Naval Air Station.

Neither pilot was identified pending notification of their families, he said. The pilot who was rescued appeared to be uninjured, Mitchell said. He was taken to shore on a destroyer.

The crash occurred shortly before the plane’s scheduled return to North Island at 4 p.m., Mitchell said. The cause of the crash was unknown.

The four-passenger jet belonging to Air Anti-Submarine Squadron 29 carried only its crew of two when it left the naval station Wednesday on a “refresher training course for pilots,” Mitchell said. When radio contact with the jet was lost shortly before 4 p.m., the Navy began a search, and declared the jet missing shortly after its return time, Mitchell said.

The search, which began about 4:15 p.m., continued after dark. The crew members are issued emergency gear, including a blinking strobe light to signal searchers, Mitchell said.

The twin-engine Viking, equipped with ejection seats, went down northwest of San Diego, near the southernmost of the Channel Islands, Mitchell said.

The Coast Guard sent a C-130 search-and-rescue plane and a helicopter to aid in the search, Coast Guard Petty Officer Bill Driscoll said.