THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 25, 1996 TAG: 9602250033
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: FROM WIRE REPORTS
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO LENGTH: Short : 38 lines
Even as the Navy was in the midst of a three-day safety ``stand-down'' for its fleet of F-14 fighters, a warplane of a different kind crashed into the Pacific Ocean, leaving one crewman dead, two injured and another missing.
The crash of the EA-6B Prowler occurred at 12:05 p.m., 150 miles off the Southern California coast.
The plane was part of Carrier Air Wing 11 aboard the San Diego-based aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. The plane's squadron is based at Whidbey Island, Wash., but was at Miramar Naval Air Station in San Diego for training.< All EA-6B Prowlers are based on the West Coast.
Two crewman were rescued by helicopter about 40 miles from the carrier and were examined aboard the ship. Their conditions were not immediately known. A fourth was still missing, Navy Cmdr. Gregg Hartung said. There was no immediate word on the cause of the crash.
The names of the crew members were being withheld pending notification of relatives.
On Thursday, the Navy, reacting to three recent crashes of Miramar-based F-14 Tomcats, ordered all F-14s grounded for three days so that crew members could review safety procedures and investigators could search for links between the crashes. That order was to end today. An exception was
[The continuation of this story was accidentally omitted.]
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE ACCIDENT MILITARY FATALITY
INJURIES STAND-DOWN U.S. NAVY by CNB