Posted on 07/31/2003 11:24:48 AM PDT by CFW
Navy plane crashes near Athens
By DON PLUMMER Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
A U.S. Navy plane crashed near Athens Thursday.
According to Mike Maus, public affairs officer at the Naval Air Force Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk, Va., a U.S. Navy S-3B Viking on a routine training mission crashed about 11:30 a.m. The two crew members on board ejected safely. They seem to be in good condition, he said, and have been picked up from the crash site.
The crew is from Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida. The S-3B is a twin-engine jet sometimes used for inflight refueling. It is the same type of plane President Bush flew aboard aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. It has also been used for antisubmarine warfare missions.
The crash took place in a wooded area off Sandy Cross Road in an area known locally as "The Glades," about 12 miles north of Lexington. Lexington is about 20 miles southeast of Athens.
Glad the pilots are safe!
You have to realize this is a literally a one red-light county. We have more dirt roads, and back roads than you would believe. We don't get much excitement, so it'll be almost impossible to keep everyone away.
Wonder why I can't get in touch with my hubby?
By Lee Shearer lee.shearer@onlineathens.com
Police and emergency workers from at least four counties are combing a remote area of Oglethorpe County this afternoon after a military aircraft went down in the area about 11:30 a.m. Both pilots of the S-3 Viking jet from Sea Control Squadron 24 ejected safely before the crash and were unhurt, according to a press release issued by the U.S. Navy at about 1 p.m.
The names of the air crew were withheld "pending notification of next of kin,'' according to the release. The multi-purpose, $27 million plane which can be used as a tanker, for surveillance and other purposes, had taken off from the Jacksonville Naval Air Station at about 9:15 a.m. and was lost to radar at 11:19 a.m., according to the Navy release. The crew was on a routine training mission.
The crash was first reported at about 11:30 a.m., when a quarry worker called Oglethorpe County 911 to report seeing the plane going down and smoke rising from the area, off the Veribest Road near the Vesta Community, near the Elbert County line, said Sue Wall, 911 director.
Besides Oglethorpe law officers and emergency medical workers, the Oconee, Clarke, Greene and Madison sheriff's departments sent officers to assist in search and rescue, along with the Georgia Forestry Commission, the state Department of Natural Resources and Athens Regional Medical Center.
As of about 1:30 p.m., Walsh had received an unconfirmed report that the pilots had been in contact with the Navy -- later confirmed by the Navy press release -- but there had not yet been a report of finding the downed aircraft.
So far, the cause of the crash is unknown, according to the Navy.
I still can't wait to hear how they get it out of the swamp.
I envision Luke Skywalker.........
Pilots eject safely over Oglethorpe
By Joe Johnson joe.johnson@onlineathens.com
LEXINGTON - Two Navy aviators on a training mission out of Florida safely ejected from their crippled jet Thursday morning before the aircraft crashed in a ball of fire in Oglethorpe County.
The fliers were found during a search that involved approximately 300 personnel from a host of emergency services agencies from Oglethorpe and Athens-Clarke counties. They were located by a Georgia State Patrol helicopter pilot.
The unharmed airmen stepped into an ambulance on their own power, and were taken to Athens Regional Medical Center for precautionary examinations, according to Navy spokesman Mike Mauss. He said the Navy would be unlikely to release the names of the pilot and co-pilot, since neither was injured. He said each was a male lieutenant with more than 1,000 hours of flight time in the type of jet that crashed, an S-3B Viking.
The plane belonged to Sea Control Squadron 24, stationed at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, and left Jacksonville at 9:15 a.m. on a routine training mission, where it was due to return, Mauss said. Sea Control Squadron 24 was involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom, flying 339 sorties from the USS Theodore Roosevelt in the Mediterranean Sea.
Sometime prior to the 11:19 a.m. crash, Athens-Clarke County Fire Department staged personnel at Athens-Ben Epps Airport on a report an inbound plane had smoke in the cockpit and had lost its hydraulics. The aircraft turned out to be the crippled Navy jet, and local fire crews were redirected to Oglethorpe County upon news of the crash.
Rescue personnel were initially operating under the belief the downed aircraft contained live missiles, but Mauss said that had been just a rumor.
''There were no weapons on this aircraft whatsoever,'' Mauss said. ''Anytime people hear about a military aircraft going down, they assume it was carrying weapons.''
The crash site was approximately halfway between Vesta and Sandy Cross in northeastern Oglethorpe County. The staging area for rescue personnel was at the intersection of Veribest and Allgood roads in the unincorporated community of Veribest.
Two eyewitnesses questioned by local and Naval police were employees of the Millstone Quarry, who were told by officials not to speak with the media and were kept within an area cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape.
One of those employees was overheard telling officers, ''I saw it all. I saw it flying over and I saw it go down.'' Quarry employee Edward Bowman, speaking from his truck as he was exiting the quarry at quitting time, said, ''We saw this plane coming in real low over the trees, and then there was this big red ball of smoke.''
Cameron Caldwell, 34, was sitting outside Tom's Place, his father's convenience store across the road from the staging area.
''I just heard an explosion, but I thought it was from the quarry,'' said Caldwell, who is blind. ''But then I heard everyone yelling about the smoke and all.''
Viola Allgood was cleaning inside her farm house and thought nothing of the explosion until a friend from nearby Crawford called to tell her about the crash.
She said she went outside and could see smoke billowing from a spot at least a mile from her residence, well beyond where her cows were grazing.
Although Mauss said he was unaware of the type of training the jet was on, he said oftentimes when the S-3B Viking is flown with only two crew members, it is for in-flight refueling. At the time of the crash it was not equipped with fuel storage tanks, however, he said.
Mauss said the aircraft is also used for anti-submarine warfare, at which time it would have four crew members. The S-3B Viking does not have a history of crashes due to mechanical failures, according to Mauss.
Mauss said the crash is being investigated by the Naval Accident Investigation Review Board, which in addition to examining the wreckage will review the downed plane's maintenance logs and mission histories. He said such investigations can take up to four months to complete, but because both crew members survived, their eyewitness information could help bring the probe to a speedy conclusion.
''We have two survivors who can tell their stories to the review board,'' Mauss said.
I don't know. They weren't even letting some people get to their homes.
Oh, we have some swampy area. Heck, we even had someone kill an alligator here in Oglethorpe County a few weeks back.
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