DATE: Saturday, June 7, 1997                TAG: 9706070708

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   22 lines

NAVY JETS, FLIERS SURVIVE MID-AIR COLLISION

LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

An F-14 Tomcat fighter sits in a hangar at Oceana Naval Air Station

in Virginia Beach Friday, a day after its right wingtip was sheared

off in a midair collision with another Tomcat over the Atlantic.

None of the four Navy aviators aboard the two-seat jets - a student

pilot and an instructor serving as radar intercept officer in one,

an instructor pilot and student RIO in the other - was injured in

the 9 p.m. accident, which the Navy said occurred during a routine

training exercise about 75 miles off the Virginia coast. The planes,

attached to the Grim Reapers of Fighter Squadron 101, sustained wing

and tail damage. A Navy accident board is investigating the

incident. KEYWORDS: ACCIDENT PLANE U.S. NAVY MILITARY PLANE

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