THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 1, 1996 TAG: 9602010335
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NASHVILLE, TENN. LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The family of a pilot whose F-14 fighter crashed into a Nashville neighborhood doesn't believe he was showing off for his parents with a dramatic takeoff, a family friend said Wednesday.
The parents of Lt. Cmdr. John Stacy Bates said they had watched his takeoffs a dozen times before, according to Maura Phillips of Chattanooga, a friend of Bates who has been acting as a spokeswoman for the family.
Suggestions that Bates told his mother and father to take a route home that would give them the best view of his ``maximum-performance'' takeoff were distressing, Phillips said.
``It was no different than kissing your spouse goodbye at the airport and then watching the plane take off,'' Phillips said after talking with Leslie and Peggy Bates. The family has not spoken directly with reporters.
The Pentagon has said it is premature to discuss whether Bates' vertical takeoff was hot-dogging. Such takeoffs, in which jets ascend more than 6,000 feet per minute with afterburners on, are not unusual for pilots trying to clear a civilian airport's airspace, Navy officials said.
Bates' request for permission to undertake a vertical takeoff may not be directly related to his family being present for his takeoff, U.S. Navy Commander Kevin Wensing said.
Navy investigators Wednesday continued to examine the site of Monday's crash, which killed Bates, his fellow airman and three people in a house struck by the jet.
It was the second accident in an F-14 for Bates, who lost a jet during an April 1995, training mission west of Hawaii. A Navy investigation faulted Bates for failing to control the jet after an engine stalled during an evasive maneuver.
KEYWORDS: F-14 ACCIDENT PLANE ACCIDENT MILITARY by CNB