2 Killed When Military Jets Collide Near Edwards Base

By ERIC SLATER and DADE HAYES

Oct. 23, 1997 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE —

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 following a mid-air collision with an F-16 fighter, Air Force officials said.

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

Killed were Lt. Col. William R. Nusz, of Rosamond, a flight test engineer who was operating cameras and performing other duties Wednesday, and the pilot, Flight Lt. Leigh Alexander Fox, an RAF pilot at Edwards on an exchange program, officials said.

The incident occurred about 3 1/2 miles northwest of the base, over Rogers Dry Lake--hard, flat terrain that can make emergency landings easier and first prompted the military to begin testing aircraft here more than six decades ago.

The planes were on a routine mission, flying alongside a B-1B bomber and taking photographs as it dropped dummy bombs, said Lt. Col. Bob Williams, Edwards’ public affairs director. The photos were to be studied to see how the bombs separated from the B-1B during flight.

Edwards officials declined to speculate about why the collision occurred, but an investigation is ongoing.

With Lt. Col. Richard Stevens, deputy commander of the 412th Operations Group, at the controls, and Capt. Nicole Blatt, of the 412th Test Wing, in the other seat, the F-16 made an emergency landing on Runway 30 Left.

Rescue teams found the T-38 wreckage in a 75,000-acre bombing range called the Precision Impact Range Area. The plane had all but disintegrated, leaving a crater nearly 4 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 parachutes that had deployed at least partially, were discovered several miles from the wreckage.

At the time 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.

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 in the Antelope Valley 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 following a series of crashes. 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 Bombing and Gunnery Range, the base evolved into the Muroc Air Force Base and changed its name to Edwards in 1949. It 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 plane.

A T-38 was involved in a spectacular crash in 1995 when, moments after taking off from Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, it plowed into a Wichita Falls apartment complex, killing two people and injuring 20. The pilots ejected moments before the plane went down and parachuted safely onto a nearby high school athletic field.

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.

The F-16 was used more than any other aircraft by the U.S. during the Gulf War, bombing Iraqi airfields and Scud missiles sites, among other targets.

Joe Stout, a Lockheed Martin spokesman, said Wednesday that the F-16 has a good flight safety record. The Air Force calculates the number of accidents, but not casualties, for every 100,000 flight hours. In 1996, Stout said, the F-16’s “loss rate was less than two aircraft per 100,000 flight hours. Anything around four to five [accidents] per 100,000 flight hours is considered good.”

Edwards Air Force Base 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. Both Lockheed Martin and the Air Force have test pilots at Edwards to fly these updated F-16s. “Each time you add something to the airplane it has to be tested,” Stout said.

Tech Sgt. Rob Fortenberry, a base spokesman, said 13 F-16s are assigned to Edwards Air Force Base.

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, and 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 foreign 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 safety. And last 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

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T-38 Talon