2 Pilots Killed in Collision Over Base

By DADE HAYES and ERIC SLATER

Oct. 23, 1997 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

A U.S. Air Force pilot and a visiting British Royal Air Force flier died Wednesday morning at Edwards Air Force Base after apparently trying to bail out of their T-38 training jet after a midair collision with an F-16 fighter, Air Force officials said.

The F-16, with damage to one wing, landed safely on a dry lake bed runway after the collision, which occurred just after 10 a.m. in clear skies. Both pilots aboard the F-16 were uninjured.

Killed in the crash were Lt. Col. William R. Nusz, assigned to the 419th Flight Test Squadron, and Flight Lt. Leigh Alexander Fox, a Royal Air Force pilot at Edwards on an exchange program, Air Force officials said.

The incident occurred about 3 1/2 miles northwest of the base, over the ground of Rogers Dry Lake Bed--hard, flat terrain that first prompted the military to test aircraft here more than six decades ago.

The planes were on a routine mission, one flying on each side of a B-1B bomber and taking photographs as the B-1B dropped dummy bombs, officials said. The photos were to be studied to see how the bombs separated from the plane during flight.

Both planes were headed in the same direction when they collided, said Lt. Col. Bob Williams, Edwards’ director of public affairs.

With Lt. Col. Richard Stevens, deputy commander of the 412 Operations Group, at the controls, and Capt. Nicole Blatt, of the 412 Test Wing, in the other seat, the F-16 made an emergency landing.

Rescue teams found the T-38 in a 75,000-acre bombing range called the Precision Impact Range Area. The plane had all but disintegrated, leaving a crater nearly four feet deep and 200 yards across, and scattering small pieces of smoldering debris over more than half a mile.

The bodies of the pilots, along with their ejection seats and partially deployed parachutes were discovered several miles from the wreckage.

When the planes collided, they were traveling about 500 knots, or roughly 585 mph, Williams said late Wednesday. And presuming they were at the altitude that their flight plans called for, they would have been just 2,700 feet above the ground, he said.

“It appears that they had tried to bail out,” Williams said. “It appears that they were not in the plane when it crashed.”

Nusz was such an avid flier and flight instructor that he and his wife, Gail, also a lieutenant colonel at Edwards, lived in Rosamond Skypark, a development for airplane enthusiasts where each of the homes comes with a hangar and residents share a private airstrip.

He owned and flew a twin-engine Cessna 310, and also flew a Formula One racer, a small, high-speed plane. He was scheduled to compete in the Fox Field National Air Races next weekend, friends said.

“He was an excellent, excellent flight instructor,” said one neighbor, who asked not to be identified. She described Nusz as “very friendly . . . a very nice neighbor,” adding “It’s just a crying shame.”

A friend who knew Nusz through his Formula One racing said, “He was a great pilot, a great guy. This is really sad.”

Edwards officials, the Royal Air Force and the British Consulate in Los Angeles could not provide details of Fox’s life or flying career Wednesday.

The crash comes less than a month after Defense Secretary William S. Cohen ordered a one-day suspension of all military training flights after a series of mishaps. The stand-down, for what Cohen called “a period of reflection,” was the first in which the training of all military pilots was suspended.

Established in 1933 as Muroc Air Force Base, with its name changed to Edwards in 1949, the facility has been the site of numerous aviation milestones, including the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager 50 years ago. As the Air Force’s primary test site for new aircraft, as well as a training center, it has also been the site of numerous crashes over the years.

The last crash at Edwards took place three years ago and also involved a T-38. No one was killed in that accident.

One of the military’s primary jet trainers, the T-38 Talon can reach supersonic speeds and altitudes of more than 55,000 feet. Pilots--who are often accompanied by an instructor in the two-seater--learn night and instrument flying and supersonic aerobatics in the T-38.

The plane that landed safely Wednesday, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, is the main jet fighter used by the Air Force, which has bought about 2,000 of them.

During the Persian Gulf War, the U.S. used the F-16 more than any other aircraft to bomb Iraqi airfields and Scud missiles sites.

Edwards is the primary test center for new F-16s, or when new air-to-air or air-to-ground missile systems or other flight systems are installed. Lockheed Martin and the Air Force have test pilots at Edwards to fly the updated F-16s.

The F-16 was designed by General Dynamics and was first delivered to the Air Force in 1979. Since then, Lockheed Martin Corp. has taken over F-16 production. A new fighter plane costs $24 million. The F-16 can fly faster than 1,500 mph and higher than 55,000 feet. Nearly 3,700 F-16s have been produced and the versatile fighter jet is used by 18 other countries, including Israel, Egypt, Belgium, Denmark and Norway.

There were at least three accidents involving F-16 aircraft earlier this year with no fatalities.

In September, two F-16 National Guard jets collided off the New Jersey coast. In June, an F-16 crashed in Death Valley after the National Guard pilot ejected safely. And in May, an Air Force F-16 pilot parachuted safely before his jet crashed in the New Mexico wilderness.

Times staff writer Barry Stavro and correspondent Sharon Moeser contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Midair Collision

A T-38 Talon jet trainer and F-16 Fighting Falcon collided over Edwards Air Force Base on Wednesday morning, killing the two-person crew on the T-38 jet. The F-16 landed safely and its two crew members were uninjured. The jets were on a routine flight to photograph a B-1B bomber making practice drops over the Mojave Desert.

F-16 Fighting Falcon

Type: Fighter

Manufacturer: General Dynamics

Crew: One pilot

Maximum takeoff weight: 37,500 pounds

Engines: One

Maximum speed: 1,320 mph

Climb: 50,000 feet per minute

Range: 2,000 miles

First flight: 1974

T-38 Talon

Type: Trainer