Warning Prompted Ejection Before Crash

Two pilots who ejected from a fighter jet Thursday just before it crashed seven miles west of the Naval Air Facility in El Centro were identified Friday as Marine 1st Lt. T.A. Harp of Catalina Island and Navy Lt. P.A Kratzer of Tucker, Ga.

Harp, a student, and Kratzer, his instructor, were flying the $28-million McDonnell Douglas F/A--18D Hornet jet low to the ground as part of a training exercise when something inside the plane warned them of a problem, said Sgt. Chris Cox, a spokesman for the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, where the two fliers are based. Both men parachuted to safety and neither was injured.

Kratzer was piloting the jet while Harp observed. The men are members of the Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 101 at El Toro. “We don’t know really know what went wrong. It may have been a short in the electronic unit that caused a fire or just a false warning light,” he said. “But we’d rather have them do that than have two dead guys.”

Cox said a news wire service report that the plane had hit a bird, sucked it into the jet stream and burst into flames was false.

“That can happen just like in the ‘Airplane’ movie, but there is no evidence to suggest that happened here,” he said. The constant stream of jet fuel that powers the plane is highly volatile, said Cox, and any interruption in the flow can cause a spark.

“It doesn’t happen very often, but it’s a really scary situation,” he said. “It’s not like driving a car, you can’t just pull over.”

Cox said an investigation into the crash could take as long as a year. There are no known witnesses.

The Hornet has been part of the Marine Corps arsenal since 1985. The Marine Corps has been transferring its jet fighter squadrons from El Toro to Miramar Naval Air Station near San Diego for the past few years. Only one tactical squadron of about a dozen jets and the training squadron, to which Harp and Kratzer belong, remain at the base. El Toro is among the bases slated for closure, Cox said.