A spokesperson for NAS Pensacola says the two planes, identified as T-39's, were on a routine training mission when the crash occurred. Both were assigned to training air wing missions and were stationed at NAS.
Rescue crews from NAS and Coast Guard of Mobile are participating in search and rescue efforts.
No word yet on passengers or injuries
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(Note: past air-to-air crashes, as well as ground clobber, have been known to occur during simulated dogfighting).
(Update from 6:30 pm CST)
Coast Guard search and rescue aircraft have discovered two debris fields believed to be the remains of two T-39 Sabreliners that went down about 40 miles south of Pensacola Beach on Wednesday afternoon.
There is no sign, however, of seven Pensacola Naval Air Station aviators who went down with the planes.
The search continues.
Air traffic controllers lost radio and radar contact with the planes about 3:30 p.m., said Harry White, spokesman for the naval air station.
There was no mayday and no distress signal before the disappearance, he said.
Within minutes, Navy and Coast Guard aircraft and boats were launched to scour the area where the planes are believed to have gone down.
The T-39 is a multiseat, multipurpose training jet that serves the intermediate phase of flight officer training, after the T-34 and before the T-2.
The T-39, which in civilian life is used as an executive jet, is not equipped with ejection seats.
The missing planes are part of Air Wing six, Training Squadron 86.
Last month the squadron celebrated its 25th anniversary of accident-free flying.
Since 1990, eight T-34s have crashed locally.
The crash was reported to Coast Guard Group Mobile, which immediately dispatched two Dolphin helicopters, one Jayhawk helicopter and a C-130 longe-range plane from Air Station Clearwater. The 87-foot cutter Stingray from Mobile, a 41-foot utility boat from Pensacola also were sent.
Coast Guard aircraft reported the two debris fields - separated by about six miles - shortly after they arrived and a helicopter dropped a data-marker buoy to assist searchers in locating survivors, a Coast Guard report stated.
The T-39 is used by VT-86 to train Radar Intercept Officers, and it is likely that the students were running radar intercepts on each other when they collided. They are supposed to maintain different altitudes during these exercises -- we always used 2000 feet vertical separation when engaging in this particular drill.
OTOH, the training syllabus flight could have been concluded, and the aircraft simply collided due to pilot error while flying formation back to NAS Pensacola.
Frmation flying is a routine for Naval Aviation -- all aviators are trained in the technique, and most Naval Aviators enjoy (and take) every opportunity to fly formation. Unfortunately, from time to time, aircraft flying in formation collide with one another.
My prayers are out to the crew and their familis.