THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 20, 1995 TAG: 9504200494
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
An Air Force crewman stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro, N.C., was killed when his plane went down during a training mission over the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday night - about 50 miles south of Morehead City.
Coast Guard crews rescued the pilot shortly after midnight Tuesday. He was listed in critical condition in the New Hanover County Hospital trauma unit in Wilmington on Wednesday afternoon.
Military officials were still looking for the downed plane late Wednesday. They had not released either airman's identity.
According to Air Force and Coast Guard officials, the F-15E aircraft was performing nighttime air-to-air intercept training with three other Air Force F-15s and a KC-135 tanker plane when it disappeared from radar about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Air Force officials said they had not yet determined the cause of the crash. A Coast Guard spokesman said he did not believe another aircraft was involved in the accident. The crewman who died, an Air Force weapons systems officer, was in the rear of the plane when it went down.
The pilot ``parachuted out and used his survival radio to call for help,'' said Coast Guard Lt. Dan Taylor of Elizabeth City, who flew in one of four helicopter rescue crews deployed during the search.
``His raft went off with him, when he ejected, and his radio was strapped to his vest. The guy was pretty beat up. But he managed to get into the raft and use his one good arm to call us on the radio.''
Although the pilot did not know his exact location, Coast Guard officials found him within two hours by tracking the signal from his radio. A rescue swimmer was sent down from a helicopter to help the pilot into a metal stretcher. Other rescue workers hoisted the pilot aboard the helicopter about 20 minutes later.
``We searched the area in a six-mile radius around where they'd found the . sign of anything,'' Taylor said. ``Another crew was sent out after we got back.''
About noon Wednesday, Taylor said, a Coast Guard helicopter crew spotted a raft upside down in the ocean - about four miles from where the pilot had been rescued. The second airman was under the raft. A 110-foot Coast Guard cutter from Atlantic Beach picked up his body.
More than 40 Coast Guard personnel from Elizabeth City participated in the 14-hour search and rescue. Besides the helicopter crews, three crews of C-130 fixed-wing airplanes helped look for the Air Force officers and aircraft. About 10 Coast Guard workers on the cutter Block Island also helped.
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE ACCIDENT MILITARY INJURIES RESCUE U.S.
AIR FORCE by CNB