Posted on 10/19/2002 4:10:36 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:41:12 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Monterey -- Two of the U.S. Navy's newest, most advanced fighter jets collided off the Big Sur coastline Friday, sending both aircraft slamming into the Pacific Ocean and possibly killing their four pilots.
The F/A-18F Super Hornet planes were practicing routine bombing runs and dogfights with six other Super Hornets, about 70 miles west of Point Sur, when the collision happened at 9:40 a.m., Navy officials said. The jets were not armed.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Huh?
"The F/A-18F Super Hornet planes were practicing routine bombing runs and dogfights with six other Super Hornets..."
This says it all.
"Living in the Navy, you develop a camaraderie. It affects you whether you know them or not."
She's absolutely right.
My husband was a pilot there and my daughter was born at the NAS Lemoore Naval Hospital. Even though it was many years ago (hubby flew the A-7B and A-7E before they were replaced with the FA-18), it still affects me when these things happen.
I pray for the families and friends of these brave pilots, and everyone at NAS Lemoore.
The losses are enormous and tragic!
Yes, it is. But you would not believe how much they love it!;o)
POINT SUR, Calif. — The U.S. Coast Guard continued to search the Pacific Ocean 80 miles southwest of Monterey for four Navy pilots missing after their two fighter jets collided Friday during a combat exercise.
Two cutters searched for the pilots through the night and at first light Saturday, an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter was sent to aid the search, Coast Guard spokeswoman Veronica Bandrowski said.
"We'll continue to search until all probability of survival has been exhausted," she said.
Computer-aided search programs, which calculate sea changes, wind and other factors, are guiding searchers over about 40 square miles where the pilots may have drifted.
The Coast Guard sent home three commercial fishing vessels that helped in the search Friday.
The two F/A-18-F jets from Lemoore Naval Air Station near Fresno collided at about 9:40 a.m. Friday while engaged in an exercise with six other fighter jets, said Lemoore spokesman Dennis McGrath. The two Super Hornets were not carrying any weapons.
Officials haven't released the identities of the missing pilots, all of whom were experienced aviators who had flown F-14 Tomcats over Afghanistan, said McGrath. Their families have been notified.
At Lemoore there is concern about the missing pilots, but everyone is trying to continue with their duties, McGrath said.
"The longer you don't find someone, the more you get concerned," McGrath said. "The flying hasn't stopped, you just get on with your job."
F/A-18F jets, which seat two aviators, are designed for traditional strike operations and close air support. F/A class fighter jets commonly are equipped with Vulcan 20mm cannon and can carry external payloads of general purpose bombs, mines and rockets.
It was the first crash involving a Super Hornet since the Navy launched the fighter jets in 1999. About 75 Super Hornets are based at Lemoore, McGrath said. Each Super Hornet costs $57 million, weighs 33 tons and has a combat flight range of 1,275 nautical miles, according to a Navy Web site.
When McDonnell Douglas -- now owned by Boeing -- was building Super Hornets in the 1990s, critics said the aircraft had problems that were never fully fixed.
The jets suffered from what is called "wing drop phenomenon," which would cause the aircraft to drop to one side during certain dogfight maneuvers, Marcus Corbin, senior analyst for the Center for Defense Information in Washington D.C. told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Corbin said during "wing drop" a pilot may not be able to discern the location of near-flying planes and he was skeptical that redesigns fixed the problem.
What is "wing drop phenomenon," ?
That's when one wing stalls, causing it to suddenly drop. It can happen on any aircraft, but apparently is more problematic on the FA-18. If this happens, it would severly impair the pilot's ability to discern where the other aircraft are. During dogfights, the aircraft are fairly close together. If I had to chose whether these two planes were involved in bombing runs or dogfighting, I'd say they were involved in a dogfight.
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