THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180345
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
Wednesday's F-14 Tomcat crash at Oceana Naval Air Station is likely to prompt increased congressional scrutiny of the F-14 program and naval aviation, area lawmakers suggested Wednesday.
``I'm sure a lot of members are going to be looking at it closer,'' said U.S. Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-4th District, a member of the House National Security Committee. ``I'm concerned, for the safety of our aviators and our people. . . I know (the crashes) make people nervous.''
Sen. Charles S. Robb, D-Va., agreed that more inquiries are likely, saying he's concerned about the age of the Tomcat and reports of a variety of mechanical problems. He posed a series of questions about the plane in a letter earlier this year to Defense Secretary William J. Perry, Robb noted.
The Oceana crash, latest in a series that has prompted the Navy to clamp a variety of restrictions on the planes and the aviators who fly them, came one day after a House subcommittee hearing on the safety of the Tomcat and the Marine Corps' AV-8B Harrier jet.
The Navy stressed during the hearing that it can find no common thread in the F-14 crashes and is moving as fast as possible to make modifications that will make the planes safer.
The Navy is installing a new pressure sensor that will warn pilots when their engines are in danger of stalling. It also is buying an $80 million digital flight control system that should limit pilots' ability to perform some maneuvers that are beyond the plane's capabilities. The money needed for those improvements is available, Navy leaders say.
The Navy's top admiral has acknowledged that the Navy ignored ``cues and clues'' from the pilot of an F-14 that crashed near Nashville, Tenn., in January, killing five people.
Investigators believe that the pilot in the Nashville crash performed a steep climb-out to impress his parents. He apparently lost control of the jet as he attempted to shift to a more routine angle of ascent.
As the Navy released a report last week attributing the Nashville crash to pilot error, Adm. Mike Boorda, the chief of naval operations, said the Navy would increase training and toughen oversight of its aviators as a result. He outlined these steps:
The Navy's vice chief of operations, Adm. Jay Johnson, will screen all future reports by field naval aviator evaluation boards - groups of fellow aviators who review problem fliers.
Johnson also was directed to review all evaluation board reports for pilots in the West Coast-based Carrier Air Wing 11 during the past three years. The plane in the Nashville crash was part of VF-213, an Air Wing 11 squadron that has the worst safety record among the Navy's 13 F-14 squadrons.
The process that the field evaluation board members follow in doing their work will be reviewed by other senior aviators, with a report due to Boorda by June 1.
A ``naval flight officer-to-pilot'' program, which each year lets a handful of bombardier/navigators and radar officers enter pilot training, is being terminated. Officials suggested that an unacceptable percentage of the program's graduates have proven to be problem pilots. Boorda said the 11 or so officers now in the program will be allowed to complete it.
All aviation commanding officers and executive officers will be required to complete the Navy's aviation safety command course.
All naval aviators will get additional training in instrument flight and coping with spatial disorientation or vertigo, a condition that occurs when the pilot's eyes or sense of balance give him erroneous signals about his direction of flight.
The report found no mechanical problems with the plane, an ``A'' model of the Tomcat. The ``A'' is the oldest model of the jet and some pilots have complained that its engines are underpowered. That apparently played no role in the Nashville crash, however.
The Navy has told air crews not to use the afterburners on F-14 ``B'' and ``D'' models until a probe of a crash off Southern California Feb. 18 is completed.
The plane that crashed at Oceana Wednesday was a ``B'' model. However, there was no indication whether afterburners were in use. Only three of the ``B'' model planes have ever crashed; they have been in service since 1986.
Investigators looking at engines recovered from the California crash said one of them may have sustained a burn through its afterburner's titanium liner.
The Navy has known about a similar problem since 1992 and believed it had been corrected. A preliminary report given to members of Congress Tuesday suggested the California burn-through was related to an oil leak elsewhere in the engine; that problem had not been observed before. ILLUSTRATION: F-14 STATISTICS
SOURCE: The Navy Safety Center in Norfolk
KEN WRIGHT
The Virginian-Pilot
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
HOW EJECTION SEATS WORK
KRT
[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.]
KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE ACCIDENT MILITARY F-14 OCEANA by CNB