THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060338
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 84 lines
Four Florida-based Navy aviators are presumed dead after their S-3B Viking jet crashed into rough seas Tuesday off the coast of Israel.
They had been operating from the Norfolk-based carrier Theodore Roosevelt, which was steaming in the eastern Mediterranean Sea southwest of the Israeli port of Haifa when the accident occurred.
The crash came just an hour after Israel reported its worst-ever military aircraft accident. Two Israeli army helicopters collided, killing 73, less than 90 miles away from the Viking accident.
There was no connection between the two accidents, officials said.
Aircraft and ships searched throughout the night and into the day Wednesday for the Navy crew, but failed to locate any survivors, officials said. The search reportedly was hampered by 7- to 10-foot waves that made the effort ``very difficult,'' Navy officials said.
Searchers did find some debris bearing the markings of the plane's squadron, said Mike Maus, a spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Force, headquartered in Norfolk.
The missing crew members were identified as: Lt. Cmdr. Mark Ehlers, 35, and Lt. Mark Eyre, 28, both pilots and both from Jacksonville, Fla.; Lt. Mike Weems, 27, of Pensacola, Fla., the tactical coordinator; and Petty Officer 3rd Class Wendy Potter, 24, of Oakdale, Calif., the aviation systems warfare operator.
The plane was a twin-engine turbojet designed to hunt and destroy submarines, one of eight on the ``T.R.'' assigned to the ``Checkmates'' of Sea Control Squadron 22 in Cecil Field, Fla.
It vanished from radar about 8 p.m. Tuesday (1 p.m. EST), approximately 87 miles west of Haifa, Israel, and about 30 miles from the ship.
Maus said the Viking was on a routine training mission, working in an exercise dubbed ``Juniper Stallion'' with the Israeli navy.
It had completed its part of the exercise and was to be relieved by another S-3B from the carrier, one official said. But when the second Viking arrived on station, its crew could not locate the first aircraft. Search efforts began at once.
That search, which included the Norfolk-based guided missile destroyer Ramage, guided missile cruiser Leyte Gulf, and oiler Leroy Grumman, was called off Wednesday night after covering more than 1,500 square miles.
The accident came two days after the T.R.'s Sunday departure from Haifa, where sailors on the crew and air wing spent several days touring Jerusalem and other Israeli cities.
The exercise was sensitive enough that the carrier's commanding officer, Capt. David Architzel, said he could not discuss it during a telephone interview Monday.
``This particular one, it's probably better that I not talk about it much,'' Architzel said, noting that it was expected to last until ``about the 7th.'' After that, the T.R. was to steam westward for a planned rendezvous with a French aircraft carrier.
It was the first fatal Navy aircraft accident of 1997 and a rare one for the Viking, a plane with a good safety record. This was only the third major accident with the S-3B in the past five years, according to Navy Safety Center records.
Thirty-one of the planes have had major accidents since being introduced to the fleet in 1974. The Navy purchased 187 through 1978 and upgraded about 160 to the ``B'' model being flown today, according to Norman Polmar's ``Ships and Aircraft of the U.S. Fleet.''
The planes have accumulated an overall accident rate of 2.43 accidents per 100,000 flying hours during the nearly 23 years they have been in service. The Navy experienced a 1.79 accident rate for all types of its aircraft last fiscal year.
The Navy's 10 operational sea control squadrons each fly eight S-3B Viking aircraft. Manufactured by Lockheed, now the Lockheed Martin Corp., they carry two pilots, a tactical coordinator and systems operator.
The plane, the Navy's first integrated search and attack aircraft, can carry four torpedoes, plus up to six 500-pound bombs in its bomb bay and on wing-mounted racks. The planes also are capable of carrying Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Tuesday's accident occurred about 50 minutes after a 7 p.m. collision between two Israel CH-53 helicopters near the Israeli-Lebanese border. The troops had been on their way to southern Lebanon following a day of hit-and-run attacks by Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas on Israeli positions there, Israeli officials said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Lt. Tim Mcgarvey
The S-3B Viking, one of which crashed Tuesday near Israel, killing
4, hunts and destroys submarines.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE U.S. NAVY S-3B VIKING FATALITY <