Navy: Pilot killed in jet collision over Nevada
FALLON, Nev. (AP) - June 13, 2008 The pilot who died was based at Naval Air Station Oceana in
Virginia Beach, Va., said Jeffery Wells, a spokesman at Fallon
Naval Air Station. He was at the controls of an F/A-18C Hornet at
the time of the crash.
The two pilots who ejected from a two-seater F-5 Tiger were
rescued about 50 miles east of the air station, said Zip Upham,
another base spokesman. They were in stable condition and being
treated for minor injuries at Banner Churchill Medical Center in
Fallon.
The two were assigned to the Fallon Naval Air Station, where
both jets had taken off.
The names of the three were being withheld pending notification
of the pilots' families, Wells said. The cause of the crash was
under investigation.
The air station, about 60 miles east of Reno, is home to the
Navy's elite Strike and Air Warfare Center. The center was formed
in 1996 with the consolidation of the Navy fighter Weapons School
known as "Top Gun" and the Carrier Airborne Early Warning Weapons
School, or "Top Dome."
The F-5 Tiger is a Vietnam-era fighter aircraft. The F/A-18C
Hornet, which was used in Operation Desert Storm, is a
fighter-attack aircraft that can carry air-to-air missiles and
infrared imaging air-to-ground missiles.
The two aircraft collided about noon near the town of
Middlegate, some 110 miles east of Reno, Upham said.
Travis Anderton, of Middlegate, said he had seen the two jets
before the crash.
"Then I heard a crash, looked up and saw them coming out of the
sky, falling," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "Then it was
smoke and you couldn't see any more."
Nevada Highway Patrol spokesman Chuck Allen said some of the
wreckage landed about a mile from a highway.
The most recent fatal crash involving aircraft from Fallon was
in May 2007. Five crew members were killed when their SH-60 Seahawk
helicopter crashed during a nighttime training mission in
north-central Nevada about 140 miles west of Reno.
Upham, who has served as base spokesman since 2001, said that
crash was the worst in recent memory. Over the previous six years,
he said there had been four separate jet and two helicopter
crashes, resulting in one death.