EL TORO : Marine Fighter Unit Is Aces in Safety

Jet fighter pilots aren’t in the world’s safest profession, but for the past nine years, the Black Knights attack squadron at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station has compiled a remarkable safety record.

The 150-member unit was honored Tuesday for logging 50,000 flight hours without a serious accident. A squadron based in South Carolina in the past year recently became the first Marine fighter unit to reach the 50,000-hour milestone.

The safety record is especially notable because its nine-year time span includes thousands of aircraft carrier landings, along with combat missions flown in 1986 against Libya and in 1991 against Iraq during the Gulf War.

“This is all dangerous stuff,” said Lt. Col. Timothy P. Hughes, the commanding officer.

“There are a thousand ways you can get killed on an aircraft carrier,” said Hughes, who described a carrier landing as a “controlled crash.”

Among those attending the ceremony at El Toro was Major Gen. Paul A. Fratarangelo, commander of the Third Marine Aircraft Wing. The award was presented by McDonnell Douglas Corp., which builds the F/A-18 Hornets flown by the Black Knights.

Hughes said pilots typically receive most of the glory in a squadron, but he gives much of the credit for the Black Knights’ safety record to the 100 young mechanics who maintain the unit’s 12 Hornets.

“They’re doing the same job as a 40-year-old mechanic for American Airlines,” Hughes said, “and they’re doing it for a lot less.”

The accident-free safety record began in 1986 when the Black Knights were deployed aboard the USS Coral Sea in the Mediterranean. The 50,000-hour mark was passed on Feb. 21 by four pilots on a training mission over Yuma, Ariz.