THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, June 10, 1994                    TAG: 9406100678 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A1    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: 940610                                 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH 

NAVY SET TO PAY FOR JET'S DAMAGE TO BOATS

The pilot could face disciplinary action, depending on the outcome of an investigation expected to be completed next week. The Navy said it might not identify him unless charges are serious enough to warrant a court-martial.

{REST} Investigators are looking into whether the pilot violated safety rules prohibiting flying below 500 feet and faster than 500 mph.

Anglers on the sports fishing boat Sizzler, which was chartered out of Oregon Inlet on Monday, said the fighter jet shattered the boat's four glass windows as it flew past. A man in another boat was cut by flying shards.

The Navy said the pilot was flying a single-seat F-16D Falcon, an Air Force model that the Navy uses to conduct fighter training. The Falcon involved is one of six assigned to Fighter Squadron 43 at Oceana Naval Air Station.

Lt. Cmdr. Kevin Wensing, a spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Force in Norfolk, declined to discuss the incident, saying investigators are still at work.

The decision to send Navy lawyers to the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center was an attempt to allow their claims to be processed quickly, he said.

The Sizzler's captain, Paul Spencer, said Thursday he has not yet talked to Navy lawyers but would like to very soon. He has made some repairs to his boat but is still waiting to replace the windows and remained in port Thursday.

Descriptions of the fly-by indicate the aircraft broke the sound barrier as it passed. The fishermen felt a shock wave that seemed to pull with it a 50-foot high plume of water. They said the airplane was flying at an altitude of no more than 50 feet.

Two other charter boats - the Osprey and Poly Anna - also claimed damage, including broken glass and engine hatches damaged when they were pulled into the air.

``I feel he must have broken the sound barrier,'' Spencer said. ``I've been out there before when these guys fly by real low and nothing like this ever happened. I had hatches up in the bow that were sucked up by just some great vacuum.''

In order for the jet to have created a sonic boom, it would have had to be flying faster than 740 mph at sea level. That is about the speed of sound, which varies depending on the altitude and temperature.

A plane flying faster than the speed of sound creates a shock wave that can hit the water, then cause it to splash upward, which would explain the plume reported by the fishermen. Over land, the shock wave is absorbed.

Fighter Squadron 43, nicknamed The Challengers, has been in service for the past 49 years and is scheduled to be decommissioned June 24. The squadron serves an adversary combat role for pilots of other Navy aircraft.

Its F-16s, the Air Force's standard lightweight fighter, simulate foreign aircraft that Navy pilots might encounter. The F-16 is capable of speeds in excess of twice the speed of sound.

{KEYWORDS} U.S. NAVY ACCIDENT MILITARY ACCIDENT BOAT INJURIES

by CNB