THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 21, 1996 TAG: 9602210452
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
The Navy sees no accident pattern in two fatal crashes of F-14 fighter jets in the past month that would call for special safety measures, officials said Tuesday.
Kenneth Bacon, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary William Perry, said Perry was met Tuesday with Adm. Mike Boorda, the chief of naval operations, to hear how the Navy is approaching its investigation of the latest crash.
On Sunday an F-14D Tomcat fighter crashed into the Pacific about 120 miles off the southern California coast during exercises, killing its two crew members.
The pilot was Lt. Terence Lee Clark, 27, of Hemet, Calif. The radar intercept officer was Cmdr. Lewis Scott Lamoreaux III, 39, of San Diego.
The plane was from squadron VF-11, based at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego. The squadron's last mishap was almost 2 years ago, on Feb. 22, 1994.
Sunday's crash was of an F-14D, the newest model of the Tomcat. It has a different and more powerful engine than the F-14A, the model involved in a deadly Jan. 29 crash in Nashville in which two crew members and three people on the ground were killed.
Though Sunday's crash was the 31st of an F-14 in the past five years, only four of those mishaps have involved F-14Ds.
Bacon said that while Perry and the Navy take the F-14 crashes seriously and will thoroughly investigate the circumstances, the Navy sees no trend in F-14 accidents that would require special new safety measures. He said it was unlikely the Navy would, for example, temporarily ground the F-14 fleet. MEMO: Staff writer Dale Eisman also contributed to this report. by CNB