Harrier Attack Jet Crashes in Atlantic Ocean; Pilot Is Rescued

For the fifth time in 16 months, a Marine Corps Harrier attack jet has crashed during a training mission, reinforcing the aircraft’s reputation as the most dangerous plane flown by the U.S. military.

The pilot ejected from the plane late Wednesday afternoon before it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean about 40 miles off the North Carolina coastline, a Marine Corps spokesman said.

1st Lt. D.A. Shipley, 30, from Twentynine Palms, Calif., spent about an hour in the water before a Marine helicopter rescued him. He was taken to Halyburton Naval Hospital at the Marine Corps Air Station in Cherry Point, N.C., where doctors evaluated and then released him.

The crash occurred while he was practicing air combat maneuvers over the ocean in a single-seat AV-8B Harrier. The downed plane is valued at about $24 million, and aircraft that crash in such deep water typically cannot be recovered, said 1st Lt. Justin Colvin, the Marine spokesman.

Colvin said he did not know whether the plane had developed mechanical problems or encountered any other difficulties in flight. Skies were clear and winds were light, according to a Coast Guard spokesman. A Marine Corps investigation will explore possible causes.

The Harrier, nicknamed “Widow-Maker,” has amassed the highest rate of major accidents of any plane flown by the armed forces. The plane has been involved in 145 serious accidents that killed 45 Marines during its 32 years of service.

Renowned for its ability to take off vertically like a helicopter, hover and then blast into conventional flight, the Harrier is famously challenging to fly. Over the years, it has been bedeviled by an array of recurring mechanical problems and maintenance glitches. The plane, which was built by McDonnell Douglas with a Rolls-Royce engine, is no longer in production but is expected to be flown for at least another 13 years.

Marine officials have said that the Harrier’s troubles are a thing of the past, and that an expensive program to retrofit the planes with the latest avionics and precision bombing equipment has made it more capable than ever. They say 70 Harriers flew thousands of successful missions during the Iraq war.

Yet Harriers crashed three times in 2002, once in the Atlantic, once in the Pacific and once in North Carolina’s Pamlico River. Another went down April 1, during the war, as it tried to land on an amphibious ship in the Persian Gulf. The pilots survived the five recent accidents.

Investigations into military aircraft crashes can last a year or more, and Marine officials have released findings in only one of the 2002 and 2003 accidents. Investigators concluded that the July 22 crash in the Pamlico River was caused by a loose rivet stem that damaged the plane’s engine compressor and caused it to stall.

Shortly after The Times published a four-part series about the Harrier’s safety record in December, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, announced he would hold “a robust set of hearings” this year on military aviation safety, focusing on the Harrier.

Last month, however, Hunter’s spokesman, Harald Stavenas, said that the congressman had not scheduled the hearings because members had shown little interest and because “the incident trend has been positive.”

Stavenas said Thursday, “That’s not to say there will never be hearings and he [Hunter] has gone back on his word.”

The question of whether and when to hold hearings would be reassessed based on Wednesday’s crash and its effect on the Harrier’s accident rate, the spokesman said. “This will affect it,” he said. “We’re waiting to see from the Marines exactly what their total numbers are and will proceed from there.”