Seven missing after Navy jets crash

The military scours the gulf off Pensacola for survivors from the two planes but finds only debris.

By MIKE BRASSFIELD
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 9, 2002

PENSACOLA -- Two Navy jets crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off the Florida Panhandle during a training mission Wednesday, and the seven crew members were missing and feared dead.

It was not clear whether the jets collided, said Harry White, spokesman for Pensacola Naval Air Station, where the planes were based.

"We don't know what happened," White said. "We have found two oil slicks and four debris fields. Once we retrieve the debris, we'll have a much better idea of what we're looking at."

Searchers found no sign of the crew members: three on one plane and four aboard the other.

The planes were twin-engine, T-39 Sabreliners, a military version of a popular business jet. The Pensacola base uses the planes to train navigators and other nonpilot air crew officers for the Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and foreign military services.

Both jets disappeared from radar about 3:30 p.m. about 40 miles south of Pensacola, said Navy spokeswoman Cathy Whitney.

Both planes' pilots were civilian contractor employees, said Rep. C.W. Bill Young, R-Largo, who was briefed on the incident. Also aboard the planes were a Marine, a foreign national and three Navy personnel.

"To the best of their knowledge, there were seven people lost," the congressman said. "They just don't know much yet. I asked if there were any emergency communications from the planes, but they did not have an answer for me on that."

The Navy and Coast Guard sent boats, helicopters and planes to search the water for the missing crew members.

The Coast Guard sent a C-130 Hercules aircraft from its Clearwater Air Station. It also sent a 41-foot rescue boat from Pensacola, as well as the 87-foot cutter Stingray and three helicopters from Mobile, Ala.

The Navy dispatched a vessel and helicopter from Pensacola.

Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Mack Mackowiak, based in New Orleans, said the search would continue through the night. It was initially concentrated on a 1-mile by 2-mile area where debris was found.

But the search widened as more plane parts were found scattered in the gulf.

"We initially had two debris fields. We now have four debris fields," said White, the spokesman for Pensacola Naval Air Station.

Some of the debris fields and oil slicks were 6 miles apart, said Ron Westlake, a public affairs assistant at the naval base.

Although prospects for the crew members' survival appeared to be bleak, military officials said they were not giving up hope Wednesday night.

"It's still a search and rescue effort," Westlake said.

The Navy planes were assigned to Training Squadron 86 in Pensacola, part of Training Air Wing 6.

The training squadron had completed 25 years of flying without a mishap, the longest documented accident-free period of any active flying squadron in aviation history, according to its Web site.

The squadron trains flight officers in navigation, radar intercept operation, electronic warfare and airborne tactical data systems. It also provides flight support for ground control approach and air intercept training.

Its foreign students include trainees from Italy, Singapore, Germany and Saudi Arabia.

Nearly a year ago, two Navy pilots were killed when another training plane from the Pensacola Naval Air Station crashed in Gulf Shores, Ala., near the gulf. The two-seat T34C plane went down June 8.

On May 29, a Navy F/A-18C Hornet jet fighter crashed nose-first into a cow pasture near Lake Okeechobee, killing the pilot. The plane from Virginia Beach, Va., was on a training mission to Key West.

-- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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