Air Force Examines Gay Affair Report in Crash Death

The Air Force said Friday it was looking into whether Capt. Craig Button dropped his A-10 attack jet out of formation over Arizona, flew it to Colorado and slammed it into a mountain because of allegations that a gay ex-lover was about to reveal their affair.

Col. Virginia Pribyla, the Air Force’s senior spokesperson in Washington, cautioned, however, that “at this point in our investigation, we have found nothing to substantiate any allegations that Capt. Button was homosexual. Any reports to the contrary are irresponsible.”

The wreckage of Button’s plane, a tank killer loaded with four 500-pound bombs and 500 rounds of 30-millimeter ammunition, was found last week on Gold Dust Peak, a part of New York Mountain, not far from Vail, Colo. A DNA test of remains found in the wreckage confirmed that Button, 32, was killed in the crash.

The Tucson Citizen newspaper, quoting an unnamed military source, said Friday that investigators think that the most plausible explanation for Button’s flight is fear of embarrassment over an alleged homosexual relationship with a fellow pilot at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. “The Air Force really believes that could be the answer,” the newspaper quoted its source as saying.

If Button had been found to be homosexual, he could have been discharged. The Pentagon considers homosexuality to be incompatible with military service. “[Investigators] do believe it [the crash] was premeditated,” the Citizen said its source declared. “If he had cleared Gold Dust Peak, the next peak was Craig Peak.”

After the Citizen published its report, Capt. Andrew White, a Davis-Monthan spokesman, was asked whether the Air Force Office of Special Investigations was looking into any allegation that Button was homosexual and feared that a gay ex-lover would reveal their affair. “That is one of the things we are looking into,” White responded.

In Washington, officials said investigators had no evidence that mechanical failure or a physical ailment could have caused Button’s crash. Moreover, they said, the investigators were unlikely to find any such evidence, given the shattered remains of the aircraft and its pilot.

By default, at least, the officials said, investigators were leaning toward intention on Button’s part. At the same time, they said, evidence of suicidal intention was equally elusive.

“That’s the frustration,” said a senior military officer close to the investigation. “This remains a mystery to us. We’re focusing on how this happened, as well as why this happened. This is certainly not a normal situation for a highly trained pilot.”

Button had left Davis-Monthan on April 2 on a training mission to the Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range near Gila Bend in southwestern Arizona. He refueled from an air tanker at 20,000 feet, then dropped to 6,000 feet to fly the No. 3 position behind an instructor.

Shortly before noon, he peeled out of the formation and flew a nearly straight line north across Arizona and into Colorado. He did not respond to radio calls. His plane’s transponder, which would have aided radar tracking, was not operating.

Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control centers picked up radar reflections from the skin of his aircraft showing that it had climbed to 14,000 feet at times to clear mountains along the way. This and a circular flight pattern east of Aspen, Colo., suggested that Button--not an autopilot--was in control.

If his rogue flight was deliberate, however, and prompted by claims of homosexuality from a fellow service member, those claims might have been difficult to act upon under the military’s current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Put in place in 1993, that policy would have precluded a commanding officer from pursing any formal investigation on the basis of rumors or hearsay.

Many gay and lesbian activists, however, say that homosexual service members continue to be forced out of the military by officers aggressively pursuing such reports.

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Some 850 military personnel were discharged last year for being homosexual, according to Michele Benecke of the Service Members Legal Defense Network. She said her group had found 443 violations of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy by military commanders.

In Massapequa, N.Y., on Long Island, a gray-haired woman answered the door of a neat, cream-colored house where Button’s parents live. “Our son was buried today,” she said. “Anything that happened in the Air Force we have no interest in.”

The woman, who spoke calmly after a reporter rang the doorbell, shut the door and locked it.

John Conroy of Sayville, a friend of Button’s parents for 42 years, greeted the Citizen’s story with disbelief.

“It just came out of the blue,” Conroy said sadly. “It’s very hurtful to his parents. We were hoping today this would be the end of it. But . . . “

Sahagun reported from Tucson; Healy from Washington. Times staff writers Richard E. Meyer in Los Angeles, John J. Goldman in Massapequa and Lianne Hart at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas, and researcher Paul Singleton in Los Angeles contributed to this story.