Investigation of Midair Jet Crash Begins at Base

Investigators began their work at dawn Thursday, attempting to pinpoint the cause of a midair collision that killed two crewmen aboard one jet Wednesday and caused the other to make an emergency landing.

As flags at the base flew at half-staff, an interim investigation board combed the site where a T-38 jet crashed into the Mojave Desert floor, and the spot several miles away where the bodies of the two men aboard were found. They apparently had tried to bail out of the crippled craft.

The wreckage of the T-38, an aircraft designed as a jet trainer but used for a variety of missions at the base, was spread out over more than half a mile. With the exception of the engines and a piece of the tail, the plane all but disintegrated on impact.

The base will hold a memorial service at 10 a.m. Monday for Air Force Lt. Col. William R. Nusz, the flight’s test engineer, and the pilot, Flight Lt. Leigh Alexander Fox, a member of the British Royal Air Force who was at Edwards as part of a pilot exchange program.

Nusz’s wife, a lieutenant colonel at the base, and Fox’s wife and two children all live in the area, officials said.

The T-38 and an F-16 fighter had spent the morning Wednesday flying on either side of a B-1 bomber, taking photographs as the B-1 dropped 25-pound dummy bombs that are designed to mimic the flight characteristics of 2,000-pound conventional bombs. Originally designed to carry nuclear weapons, the B-1s are being refitted to drop the conventional bombs, and Wednesday’s mission was part of that process, said base spokesman John Haire.

As the flight was ending and the planes were preparing to return to the base shortly after 10 a.m., the two smaller craft collided. They were probably traveling about 500 mph at an altitude near 2,700 feet at the time, officials said.

The F-16 was able to land despite losing a 3-foot section of one wing. The pilot and test engineer aboard that jet were uninjured.