Posted on 03/11/2013 10:45:45 AM PDT by matt1234
LINCOLN COUNTY, Wash. -- Authorities confirm a military plane from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island crashed in Lincoln County, Wash.
A volunteer firefighter in Davenport tells KREM.com the plane crashed between Harrington and Odessa, near the intersection of Coffee Pot Rd. and Duck Lake Lamona Rd.
Witnesses told KREM 2 they heard a large plane followed by a loud "boom" seconds later, and saw a large cloud of smoke billowing from the ground, with the first reports coming in around 9 a.m. Monday morning.
KREM 2 has a crew on the way to the scene.
/johnny
LINCOLN COUNTY, Wash. — Authorities confirm a military plane from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island crashed in Lincoln County, WA.
A volunteer firefighter in Davenport tells KREM.com the plane crashed between Harrington and Odessa, near the intersection of Coffee Pot Rd. and Duck Lake Lamona Rd. The Harrington City Clerk says their office has received an email stating the crash killed three people.
A witness tells KREM 2 News he heard an “incredible boom” at about 8:30 Monday morning and saw a large plume of smoke. Joel Cronrath says he went toward the scene and saw wreckage from the crash. Cronrath says he drives a bus, and often sees military fighter jets training in the area, performing difficult maneuvers. Cronrath says infomation he gathered from authorities on the scene is that three people died in the crash.
KREM 2 also talked to Stan Dammel, the manager of the Odessa airport. Dammel says he flew over the scene after hearing of the crash. He says all he could see was a charred spot on the ground with debris scattared.
KREM 2 has a crew at the scene.
more seals or similar?
No. Likely an EA-6B Prowler.
The U.S. Navy confirmed the jet was an EA6B Prowler, which can hold two to four people. They did not have information on the number of passengers or their status.
EA-6B...an oldie goldie.
Good luck to the crew.
They love to fly low and fast through the Mt Rainier area - at night.
Great fun - unless you are camping / asleep when they come over head !!
Prayers for the crew. I hope they made it out in time.
The US Navy and USAF have different approaches to electronic warfare. The USAF wants to hide using stealth technology. The Navy doesn’t care about hiding, They just fry the hell out of the enemy’s radar and missle guidance systems.
That’s why the USAF want Prowlers/Growlers to go in first.
Reporting 3 dead in crash. Damn
http://www.krem.com/news/Plane-crash-in-Lincol-County-196970661.html
I did some work on their runways there between 1998-2000. Also fly the P3’s out of there as well. Had the military version of the MD-80 for personnel transport thereas well. Plus there is always the occasional plane in transit come through.
I have a friend who’s a former Prowler pilot. His past comments confirm everything you said.
“The Navy doesn’t care about hiding”
You can’t hide when your flying Prwolers. They must be the loudest jet in the entire military.
yes, we can hope and pray that the crew had time to eject
My dad retired as the Leading Chief of VA-115 in 1976 at NAS Whidbey.
If you have seen the movie or read the book “Flight of the Intruder”, the scene of the BN being killed by an AK-47 actually happened in his squadron. One of the very few times I saw my dad cry as he was reading that in the book.
NavyTimes.com reporting that Prowler was from squadron VAQ-129.
There are still EA-6B’s at Whidbey but they’re phasing in the Growlers gradually. Both fly over my house nightly, especially when it’s rainy and windy. They can’t be much over 2000-2500 feet, over and over for hours. The base is only about twelve miles away and believe it or not, I can hear them doing run-ups from here. I’m a little surprised we haven’t had one drop in on us by now. I don’t mind the noise much but some newcomers in town bitch like the devil.
I live in the shadow of the shuttered El Toro U.S.M.C.A.S. I wish those guys were still around to fly over my house. The sound of freedom. My son and I would go outside and look up at them with pride. Damn, I do miss them.
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