Navy Commander, Pilot Missing in Fighter Crash
The commander of a San Diego-based carrier battle group and his pilot were missing Wednesday when their F/A-18 Hornet apparently crashed in bad weather about 60 miles northwest of Santa Fe, N.M., Navy officials said.
Aboard the aircraft were Rear Adm. James G. Prout III, 51, commander of the Carl Vinson carrier battle group, and his pilot, Cmdr. Joseph G. Kleefisch, 41, a squadron commander based at Lemoore Naval Air Station near San Francisco, said Cmdr. Mike Thurwanger, a Navy public affairs officer in San Diego.
Prout was aboard the aircraft, a two-seat trainer version of a carrier-based all-weather fighter and attack aircraft, for a demonstration of its flying abilities. The flight was headed for St. Louis, Mo., where Prout was to meet with officials at McDonnell Douglas, the manufacturer of the F-18, Thurwanger said.
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