Search Called Off for Navy Pilot Lost at Sea
A search for the pilot of a Navy fighter jet was called off Sunday, more than a dozen hours after the jet crashed during a training flight. The pilot was declared lost at sea, officials said.
Lt. Glennon Kersgieter of Edmond, Okla., was piloting the single-seat fighter, known as a Hornet, when it crashed Saturday evening, said a spokesman at the Naval Air Station in Lemoore.
Helicopters from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and the destroyer John Paul Jones searched from shortly after the plane went down about 7:35 p.m. Saturday until 9:30 a.m. Sunday, said the spokesman.
The jet was on a routine training flight from the carrier as part of a Pacific Fleet exercise in preparation for a six-month deployment, authorities said.
It was the third Navy fighter jet in a month to crash in the ocean off San Diego.
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