Navy Plane Plunges Into Ocean; 1 Dead

The crash of a Navy jet Saturday left one crewman dead, two injured and another missing, and prompted a safety review order for Pacific Fleet airplanes, the Navy said.

In response to the crash of the EA-6B Prowler, the Navy ordered late Saturday that all 79 squadrons attached to the Pacific Fleet put their 1,600 aircraft through a two-day safety “stand-down” by March 5.

Also, the carrier Kitty Hawk, where the plane was part of Carrier Air Wing 11, was ordered immediately back to San Diego and her planes were ordered back to their bases. The stand-down will cover procedures involving crashes, ejection and “risk management,” according to Vice Adm. Brent M. Bennitt.

Saturday’s crash 150 miles off the Southern California coast came as the Navy was in the midst of a three-day safety “stand-down” for the better-known F-14 fighter.

The plane’s squadron is based at Whidbey Island, Wash., but was at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego for training.

Two crewmen were rescued by helicopter about 40 miles from the carrier. A fourth was still missing, according to Navy Cmdr. Gregg Hartung. There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.

The four-seat EA-6B Prowler is known among fliers as the unsung hero of the Navy air fleet, yet it gathers none of the publicity of newer attack aircraft. The Prowler’s goal is to jam enemy radar to clear the way for fighters and bombers.

On Thursday, the Navy, reacting to three recent crashes of Miramar-based F-14 Tomcats, ordered all F-14s grounded for three days so that crew members could review safety procedures and investigators could probe for links between the crashes. That order was to end today.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) has scheduled a hearing before the House National Security subcommittee on military procurement on the F-14’s safety record. Thirty-two of the supersonic jets have crashed since 1991, amid much controversy about the adequacies of the plane’s engine design.

In the wake of the stand-down, Hunter and Rep. Randall “Duke” Cunningham (R-San Diego) blasted the Clinton administration for cutting defense appropriations, particularly for upgrading older aircraft with newer electronic equipment.

The Prowler’s success rate during Operation Desert Storm was considered excellent in providing air superiority and reducing casualties among coalition forces.

The Prowler, developed by Grumman Aircraft of Long Island during the Vietnam War, has a top speed of about 650 mph. The F-14, which was glamorized in the movie “Top Gun,” can fly at Mach 1.88 (about 1,240 mph). No Prowlers have been built since 1991.

Cunningham has complained bitterly about political opponents who branded as “pork” his suggested appropriations to upgrade older aircraft such as the Tomcat and Prowler.

“It may be pork to them, but it’s life to these young kids [fliers],” Cunningham said while backing Hunter’s suggestion for an investigation of the F-14.

Despite the recent rash of F-14 crashes, the three-day stand-down and now the EA-6B crash, the Navy’s safety record has improved in recent years, with additional training and a new emphasis on safety.

Also, although the F-14 crashes have again brought up questions about the plane’s engine, investigators in 80% of all Navy crashes blame pilot error as at least a contributing factor.

The older F-14s and the EA-6Bs have presented a dilemma for the Navy during a time of declining budgets: Whether to spend money upgrading planes slated to be phased out or to put that money toward buying more planes “of the future,” such as the F-18 fighter.